Sample records for human language faculty

  1. What Is the Human Language Faculty? Two Views

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jackendoff, Ray

    2011-01-01

    In addition to providing an account of the empirical facts of language, a theory that aspires to account for language as a biologically based human faculty should seek a graceful integration of linguistic phenomena with what is known about other human cognitive capacities and about the character of brain computation. The present discussion note…

  2. The Nature of the Language Faculty and Its Implications for Evolution of Language (Reply to Fitch, Hauser, and Chomsky)

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jackendoff, Ray; Pinker, Steven

    2005-01-01

    In a continuation of the conversation with Fitch, Chomsky, and Hauser on the evolution of language, we examine their defense of the claim that the uniquely human, language-specific part of the language faculty (the ''narrow language faculty'') consists only of recursion, and that this part cannot be considered an adaptation to communication. We…

  3. The language faculty that wasn't: a usage-based account of natural language recursion

    PubMed Central

    Christiansen, Morten H.; Chater, Nick

    2015-01-01

    In the generative tradition, the language faculty has been shrinking—perhaps to include only the mechanism of recursion. This paper argues that even this view of the language faculty is too expansive. We first argue that a language faculty is difficult to reconcile with evolutionary considerations. We then focus on recursion as a detailed case study, arguing that our ability to process recursive structure does not rely on recursion as a property of the grammar, but instead emerges gradually by piggybacking on domain-general sequence learning abilities. Evidence from genetics, comparative work on non-human primates, and cognitive neuroscience suggests that humans have evolved complex sequence learning skills, which were subsequently pressed into service to accommodate language. Constraints on sequence learning therefore have played an important role in shaping the cultural evolution of linguistic structure, including our limited abilities for processing recursive structure. Finally, we re-evaluate some of the key considerations that have often been taken to require the postulation of a language faculty. PMID:26379567

  4. The language faculty that wasn't: a usage-based account of natural language recursion.

    PubMed

    Christiansen, Morten H; Chater, Nick

    2015-01-01

    In the generative tradition, the language faculty has been shrinking-perhaps to include only the mechanism of recursion. This paper argues that even this view of the language faculty is too expansive. We first argue that a language faculty is difficult to reconcile with evolutionary considerations. We then focus on recursion as a detailed case study, arguing that our ability to process recursive structure does not rely on recursion as a property of the grammar, but instead emerges gradually by piggybacking on domain-general sequence learning abilities. Evidence from genetics, comparative work on non-human primates, and cognitive neuroscience suggests that humans have evolved complex sequence learning skills, which were subsequently pressed into service to accommodate language. Constraints on sequence learning therefore have played an important role in shaping the cultural evolution of linguistic structure, including our limited abilities for processing recursive structure. Finally, we re-evaluate some of the key considerations that have often been taken to require the postulation of a language faculty.

  5. Language, Mind, Practice: Families of Recursive Thinking in Human Reasoning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Josephson, Marika

    2011-01-01

    In 2002, Chomsky, Hauser, and Fitch asserted that recursion may be the one aspect of the human language faculty that makes human language unique in the narrow sense--unique to language and unique to human beings. They also argue somewhat more quietly (as do Pinker and Jackendoff 2005) that recursion may be possible outside of language: navigation,…

  6. The Faculty of Language: What's Special about It?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pinker, S.; Jackendoff, R.

    2005-01-01

    We examine the question of which aspects of language are uniquely human and uniquely linguistic in light of recent suggestions by Hauser, Chomsky, and Fitch that the only such aspect is syntactic recursion, the rest of language being either specific to humans but not to language (e.g. words and concepts) or not specific to humans (e.g. speech…

  7. The faculty of language: what is it, who has it, and how did it evolve?

    PubMed

    Hauser, Marc D; Chomsky, Noam; Fitch, W Tecumseh

    2002-11-22

    We argue that an understanding of the faculty of language requires substantial interdisciplinary cooperation. We suggest how current developments in linguistics can be profitably wedded to work in evolutionary biology, anthropology, psychology, and neuroscience. We submit that a distinction should be made between the faculty of language in the broad sense (FLB) and in the narrow sense (FLN). FLB includes a sensory-motor system, a conceptual-intentional system, and the computational mechanisms for recursion, providing the capacity to generate an infinite range of expressions from a finite set of elements. We hypothesize that FLN only includes recursion and is the only uniquely human component of the faculty of language. We further argue that FLN may have evolved for reasons other than language, hence comparative studies might look for evidence of such computations outside of the domain of communication (for example, number, navigation, and social relations).

  8. Introduction: integrating genetic and cultural evolutionary approaches to language.

    PubMed

    Mesoudi, Alex; McElligott, Alan G; Adger, David

    2011-04-01

    The papers in this special issue of Human Biology address recent research in the field of language evolution, both the genetic evolution of the language faculty and the cultural evolution of specific languages. While both of these areas have received increasing interest in recent years, there is also a need to integrate these somewhat separate efforts and explore the relevant gene-culture coevolutionary interactions. Here we summarize the individual contributions, set them in the context of the wider literature, and identify outstanding future research questions. The first set of papers concerns the comparative study of nonhuman communication in primates and birds from both a behavioral and neurobiological perspective, revealing evidence for several common language-related traits in various nonhuman species and providing clues as to the evolutionary origin and function of the human language faculty. The second set of papers discusses the consequences of viewing language as a culturally evolving system in its own right, including claims that this removes the need for strong genetic biases for language acquisition, and that phylogenetic evolutionary methods can be used to reconstruct language histories. We conclude by highlighting outstanding areas for future research, including identifying the precise selection pressures that gave rise to the language faculty in ancestral hominin species, and determining the strength, domain specificity, and origin of the cultural transmission biases that shape languages as they pass along successive generations of language learners.

  9. Why Pop? A Conversation about Language with John Cawelti. The National Humanities Faculty Why Series.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cawelti, John; Rogerson, Don F.

    This is a conversation concerning pop culture between Don F. Rogerson, Head of the Humanities Department of Baltimore City College and chairman of a faculty committee for the development of an experimental, humanities-oriented three-year high school, and John Cawelti, Professor of English and Humanities at the University of Chicago and chairman of…

  10. A Personal Touch: Embedding Library Faculty into Online English 102

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kadavy, Casey; Chuppa-Cornell, Kim

    2011-01-01

    At the beginning of each school year, the Languages and Humanities Division at Chandler-Gilbert Community College (CGCC) meets to discuss first-year composition matters. Faculty leave the workshop renewed by the collaboration and buoyed by the promise and potential of a new semester. Yet, when classes actually begin, faculty may find that they are…

  11. The origins of language and the evolution of music: A comparative perspective

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Masataka, Nobuo

    2009-03-01

    According to Darwin [Darwin, CR. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray; 1871], the human musical faculty ‘must be ranked amongst the most mysterious with which he is endowed’. Music is a human cultural universal that serves no obvious adaptive purpose, making its evolution a puzzle for evolutionary biologists. This review examines Darwin's hypothesis of similarities between language and music indicating a shared evolutionary history. In particular, the fact that both are human universals, have phrase structure, and entail learning and cultural transmission, suggests that any theory of the evolution of language will have implications for the evolution of music, and vice versa. The argument starts by describing variable predispositional musical capabilities and the ontogeny of prosodic communication in human infants and young children, presenting comparative data regarding communication systems commonly present in living nonhuman primate species. Like language, the human music faculty is based on a suite of abilities, some of which are shared with other primates and some of which appear to be uniquely human. Each of these subcomponents may have a different evolutionary history, and should be discussed separately. After briefly considering possible functions of human music for language acquisition, the review ends by discussing the phylogenetic history of music. It concludes that many strands of evidence support Darwin's hypothesis of an intermediate stage of human evolutionary history, characterized by a communication system that resembled music more closely than language, but was identical to neither. This pre-linguistic system, which could probably referred to as “prosodic protolanguage”, provided a precursor for both modern language and music.

  12. What's special about human language? The contents of the "narrow language faculty" revisited.

    PubMed

    Traxler, Matthew J; Boudewyn, Megan; Loudermilk, Jessica

    2012-10-01

    In this review we re-evaluate the recursion-only hypothesis, advocated by Fitch, Hauser and Chomsky (Hauser, Chomsky & Fitch, 2002; Fitch, Hauser & Chomsky, 2005). According to the recursion-only hypothesis, the property that distinguishes human language from animal communication systems is recursion, which refers to the potentially infinite embedding of one linguistic representation within another of the same type. This hypothesis predicts (1) that non-human primates and other animals lack the ability to learn recursive grammar, and (2) that recursive grammar is the sole cognitive mechanism that is unique to human language. We first review animal studies of recursive grammar, before turning to the claim that recursion is a property of all human languages. Finally, we discuss other views on what abilities may be unique to human language.

  13. Neural Circuitry of the Bilingual Mental Lexicon: Effect of Age of Second Language Acquisition

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Isel, Frederic; Baumgaertner, Annette; Thran, Johannes; Meisel, Jurgen M.; Buchel, Christian

    2010-01-01

    Numerous studies have proposed that changes of the human language faculty caused by neural maturation can explain the substantial differences in ultimate attainment of grammatical competences between first language (L1) acquirers and second language (L2) learners. However, little evidence on the effect of neural maturation on the attainment of…

  14. The Faculty of Language Integrates the Two Core Systems of Number.

    PubMed

    Hiraiwa, Ken

    2017-01-01

    Only humans possess the faculty of language that allows an infinite array of hierarchically structured expressions (Hauser et al., 2002; Berwick and Chomsky, 2015). Similarly, humans have a capacity for infinite natural numbers, while all other species seem to lack such a capacity (Gelman and Gallistel, 1978; Dehaene, 1997). Thus, the origin of this numerical capacity and its relation to language have been of much interdisciplinary interest in developmental and behavioral psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and linguistics (Dehaene, 1997; Hauser et al., 2002; Pica et al., 2004). Hauser et al. (2002) and Chomsky (2008) hypothesize that a recursive generative operation that is central to the computational system of language (called Merge ) can give rise to the successor function in a set-theoretic fashion, from which capacities for discretely infinite natural numbers may be derived. However, a careful look at two domains in language, grammatical number and numerals, reveals no trace of the successor function. Following behavioral and neuropsychological evidence that there are two core systems of number cognition innately available, a core system of representation of large, approximate numerical magnitudes and a core system of precise representation of distinct small numbers (Feigenson et al., 2004), I argue that grammatical number reflects the core system of precise representation of distinct small numbers alone. In contrast, numeral systems arise from integrating the pre-existing two core systems of number and the human language faculty. To the extent that my arguments are correct, linguistic representations of number, grammatical number, and numerals do not incorporate anything like the successor function.

  15. The Faculty of Language Integrates the Two Core Systems of Number

    PubMed Central

    Hiraiwa, Ken

    2017-01-01

    Only humans possess the faculty of language that allows an infinite array of hierarchically structured expressions (Hauser et al., 2002; Berwick and Chomsky, 2015). Similarly, humans have a capacity for infinite natural numbers, while all other species seem to lack such a capacity (Gelman and Gallistel, 1978; Dehaene, 1997). Thus, the origin of this numerical capacity and its relation to language have been of much interdisciplinary interest in developmental and behavioral psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and linguistics (Dehaene, 1997; Hauser et al., 2002; Pica et al., 2004). Hauser et al. (2002) and Chomsky (2008) hypothesize that a recursive generative operation that is central to the computational system of language (called Merge) can give rise to the successor function in a set-theoretic fashion, from which capacities for discretely infinite natural numbers may be derived. However, a careful look at two domains in language, grammatical number and numerals, reveals no trace of the successor function. Following behavioral and neuropsychological evidence that there are two core systems of number cognition innately available, a core system of representation of large, approximate numerical magnitudes and a core system of precise representation of distinct small numbers (Feigenson et al., 2004), I argue that grammatical number reflects the core system of precise representation of distinct small numbers alone. In contrast, numeral systems arise from integrating the pre-existing two core systems of number and the human language faculty. To the extent that my arguments are correct, linguistic representations of number, grammatical number, and numerals do not incorporate anything like the successor function. PMID:28360870

  16. What's special about human language? The contents of the "narrow language faculty" revisited

    PubMed Central

    Traxler, Matthew J.; Boudewyn, Megan; Loudermilk, Jessica

    2012-01-01

    In this review we re-evaluate the recursion-only hypothesis, advocated by Fitch, Hauser and Chomsky (Hauser, Chomsky & Fitch, 2002; Fitch, Hauser & Chomsky, 2005). According to the recursion-only hypothesis, the property that distinguishes human language from animal communication systems is recursion, which refers to the potentially infinite embedding of one linguistic representation within another of the same type. This hypothesis predicts (1) that non-human primates and other animals lack the ability to learn recursive grammar, and (2) that recursive grammar is the sole cognitive mechanism that is unique to human language. We first review animal studies of recursive grammar, before turning to the claim that recursion is a property of all human languages. Finally, we discuss other views on what abilities may be unique to human language. PMID:23105948

  17. Language Impairments in ASD Resulting from a Failed Domestication of the Human Brain

    PubMed Central

    Benítez-Burraco, Antonio; Lattanzi, Wanda; Murphy, Elliot

    2016-01-01

    Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are pervasive neurodevelopmental disorders entailing social and cognitive deficits, including marked problems with language. Numerous genes have been associated with ASD, but it is unclear how language deficits arise from gene mutation or dysregulation. It is also unclear why ASD shows such high prevalence within human populations. Interestingly, the emergence of a modern faculty of language has been hypothesized to be linked to changes in the human brain/skull, but also to the process of self-domestication of the human species. It is our intention to show that people with ASD exhibit less marked domesticated traits at the morphological, physiological, and behavioral levels. We also discuss many ASD candidates represented among the genes known to be involved in the “domestication syndrome” (the constellation of traits exhibited by domesticated mammals, which seemingly results from the hypofunction of the neural crest) and among the set of genes involved in language function closely connected to them. Moreover, many of these genes show altered expression profiles in the brain of autists. In addition, some candidates for domestication and language-readiness show the same expression profile in people with ASD and chimps in different brain areas involved in language processing. Similarities regarding the brain oscillatory behavior of these areas can be expected too. We conclude that ASD may represent an abnormal ontogenetic itinerary for the human faculty of language resulting in part from changes in genes important for the “domestication syndrome” and, ultimately, from the normal functioning of the neural crest. PMID:27621700

  18. The dual loop model: its relation to language and other modalities

    PubMed Central

    Rijntjes, Michel; Weiller, Cornelius; Bormann, Tobias; Musso, Mariacristina

    2012-01-01

    The current neurobiological consensus of a general dual loop system scaffolding human and primate brains gives evidence that the dorsal and ventral connections subserve similar functions, independent of the modality and species. However, most current commentators agree that although bees dance and chimpanzees grunt, these systems of communication differ qualitatively from human language. So why is language unique to humans? We discuss anatomical differences between humans and other animals, the meaning of lesion studies in patients, the role of inner speech, and compare functional imaging studies in language with other modalities in respect to the dual loop model. These aspects might be helpful for understanding what kind of biological system the language faculty is, and how it relates to other systems in our own species and others. PMID:22783188

  19. Insights into the genetic foundations of human communication.

    PubMed

    Graham, Sarah A; Deriziotis, Pelagia; Fisher, Simon E

    2015-03-01

    The human capacity to acquire sophisticated language is unmatched in the animal kingdom. Despite the discontinuity in communicative abilities between humans and other primates, language is built on ancient genetic foundations, which are being illuminated by comparative genomics. The genetic architecture of the language faculty is also being uncovered by research into neurodevelopmental disorders that disrupt the normally effortless process of language acquisition. In this article, we discuss the strategies that researchers are using to reveal genetic factors contributing to communicative abilities, and review progress in identifying the relevant genes and genetic variants. The first gene directly implicated in a speech and language disorder was FOXP2. Using this gene as a case study, we illustrate how evidence from genetics, molecular cell biology, animal models and human neuroimaging has converged to build a picture of the role of FOXP2 in neurodevelopment, providing a framework for future endeavors to bridge the gaps between genes, brains and behavior.

  20. The Nature of Music

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Peretz, Isabelle

    2005-01-01

    Music, as language, is a universal human trait. Throughout human history and across all cultures, individuals have produced and enjoyed music. Despite its ubiquity, music is rarely studied as a basic and distinct cognitive faculty. However, recent evidence suggests that music might well be distinct from other cognitive functions, in being…

  1. Views of Constructed Languages, with Special Reference to Esperanto: An Experimental Study.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Edwards, John; MacPherson, Lynn

    1987-01-01

    A study of college faculty and student attitudes toward artificial languages, particularly Esperanto, found faculty more knowledgeable but less enthusiastic than students about the languages. Faculty were less likely to see practical benefits in the knowledge and use of constructed languages, and less interested in seeing them taught or learning…

  2. Music, Evolution and Language

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Masataka, Nobuo

    2007-01-01

    Darwin (1871) noted that the human musical faculty "must be ranked amongst the most mysterious with which he is endowed". Indeed, previous research with human infants and young children has revealed that we are born with variable musical capabilities. Here, the adaptive purpose served by these differing capabilities is discussed with reference to…

  3. The neurobiology of syntax: beyond string sets.

    PubMed

    Petersson, Karl Magnus; Hagoort, Peter

    2012-07-19

    The human capacity to acquire language is an outstanding scientific challenge to understand. Somehow our language capacities arise from the way the human brain processes, develops and learns in interaction with its environment. To set the stage, we begin with a summary of what is known about the neural organization of language and what our artificial grammar learning (AGL) studies have revealed. We then review the Chomsky hierarchy in the context of the theory of computation and formal learning theory. Finally, we outline a neurobiological model of language acquisition and processing based on an adaptive, recurrent, spiking network architecture. This architecture implements an asynchronous, event-driven, parallel system for recursive processing. We conclude that the brain represents grammars (or more precisely, the parser/generator) in its connectivity, and its ability for syntax is based on neurobiological infrastructure for structured sequence processing. The acquisition of this ability is accounted for in an adaptive dynamical systems framework. Artificial language learning (ALL) paradigms might be used to study the acquisition process within such a framework, as well as the processing properties of the underlying neurobiological infrastructure. However, it is necessary to combine and constrain the interpretation of ALL results by theoretical models and empirical studies on natural language processing. Given that the faculty of language is captured by classical computational models to a significant extent, and that these can be embedded in dynamic network architectures, there is hope that significant progress can be made in understanding the neurobiology of the language faculty.

  4. The neurobiology of syntax: beyond string sets

    PubMed Central

    Petersson, Karl Magnus; Hagoort, Peter

    2012-01-01

    The human capacity to acquire language is an outstanding scientific challenge to understand. Somehow our language capacities arise from the way the human brain processes, develops and learns in interaction with its environment. To set the stage, we begin with a summary of what is known about the neural organization of language and what our artificial grammar learning (AGL) studies have revealed. We then review the Chomsky hierarchy in the context of the theory of computation and formal learning theory. Finally, we outline a neurobiological model of language acquisition and processing based on an adaptive, recurrent, spiking network architecture. This architecture implements an asynchronous, event-driven, parallel system for recursive processing. We conclude that the brain represents grammars (or more precisely, the parser/generator) in its connectivity, and its ability for syntax is based on neurobiological infrastructure for structured sequence processing. The acquisition of this ability is accounted for in an adaptive dynamical systems framework. Artificial language learning (ALL) paradigms might be used to study the acquisition process within such a framework, as well as the processing properties of the underlying neurobiological infrastructure. However, it is necessary to combine and constrain the interpretation of ALL results by theoretical models and empirical studies on natural language processing. Given that the faculty of language is captured by classical computational models to a significant extent, and that these can be embedded in dynamic network architectures, there is hope that significant progress can be made in understanding the neurobiology of the language faculty. PMID:22688633

  5. Learning English as a Second Language at the University Level in Jordan: Motivation, Self-Regulation and Learning Environment Perceptions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Alzubaidi, Eman; Aldridge, Jill M.; Khine, Myint Swe

    2016-01-01

    The overarching aim of this study was to investigate students' perceptions of the learning environment and whether these influenced their motivation and self-regulation in learning English as a second language at the university level in Jordan. Our sample involved 994 students, drawn from 13 schools, within three faculties (humanities, health…

  6. Sentence processing in the cerebral cortex.

    PubMed

    Sakai, K L; Hashimoto, R; Homae, F

    2001-01-01

    Human language is a unique faculty of the mind. It has been the ultimate mystery throughout the history of neuroscience. Despite many aphasia and functional imaging studies, the exact correlation between cortical language areas and subcomponents of the linguistic system has not been established. One notable drawback is that most functional imaging studies have tested language tasks at the word level, such as lexical decision and word generation tasks, thereby neglecting the syntactic aspects of the language faculty. As proposed by Chomsky, the critical knowledge of language involves universal grammar (UG), which governs the syntactic structure of sentences. In this article, we will review recent advances made by functional neuroimaging studies of language, focusing especially on sentence processing in the cerebral cortex. We also present the recent results of our functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study intended to identify cortical areas specifically involved in syntactic processing. A study of sentence processing that employs a newly developed technique, optical topography (OT), is also presented. Based on these findings, we propose a modular specialization of Broca's area, Wernicke's area, and the angular gyrus/supramarginal gyrus. The current direction of research in neuroscience is beginning to establish the existence of distinct modules responsible for our knowledge of language.

  7. FOXP2 and the neuroanatomy of speech and language.

    PubMed

    Vargha-Khadem, Faraneh; Gadian, David G; Copp, Andrew; Mishkin, Mortimer

    2005-02-01

    That speech and language are innate capacities of the human brain has long been widely accepted, but only recently has an entry point into the genetic basis of these remarkable faculties been found. The discovery of a mutation in FOXP2 in a family with a speech and language disorder has enabled neuroscientists to trace the neural expression of this gene during embryological development, track the effects of this gene mutation on brain structure and function, and so begin to decipher that part of our neural inheritance that culminates in articulate speech.

  8. Allegheny College Hosts Neuroscience and Humanities Summer Institute

    PubMed Central

    Macel, Emily M.

    2004-01-01

    The Neuroscience and Humanities Summer Institute, hosted by Allegheny College, opened doors of opportunity, perception, and creativity for faculty and students across the nation. Offered first in 2002, and a second time in June of 2004, this weeklong event was designed to provide a medium for fostering development of interdisciplinary courses linking neuroscience and the humanities (e.g., the fine arts, philosophy and language). During the Institute, participants attended presentations by Allegheny faculty introducing the six courses of this type that they have developed starting in 2000, lectures by guest speakers, workshops, and discussion modules. Participants were encouraged to gather ideas about Allegheny’s neuroscience and humanities courses and formulate specific plans to take back to their schools. These opportunities and experiences resulted in the formation of valuable connections and the development of ideas around the links between neuroscience and humanities. PMID:23493745

  9. Root, Successive-Cyclic and Feature-Splitting Internal Merge: Implications for Feature-Inheritance and Transfer

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Obata, Miki

    2010-01-01

    The goal of the dissertation is to determine aspects of the structure of the human language faculty, a cognitive system, specifically focusing on human syntactic systems, (unique in the animal kingdom) which enable us to creatively produce an unlimited number of grammatical sentences (like the one you just read, probably never before written or…

  10. Language architecture and its import for evolution.

    PubMed

    Chomsky, Noam

    2017-10-01

    Inquiry into the evolution of some biological system evidently can proceed only as far as its nature is understood. Lacking such understanding, its manifestations are likely to appear to be chaotic, highly variable, and lacking significant general properties; and, accordingly, study of its evolution cannot be seriously undertaken. These truisms hold of the study of the human faculty of language FL just as for other biological systems. As discussed below, FL appears to be a shared human capacity in essentials, with options of variation of a kind to which we return. After a long lapse, the problem of evolution of language arose in mid-twentieth century when the first efforts were made to construct accounts of FL as a biological object, internal to an individual, with particular internal languages - I-languages in current terminology - as manifestations of FL. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  11. Language beyond action.

    PubMed

    Toni, Ivan; de Lange, Floris P; Noordzij, Matthijs L; Hagoort, Peter

    2008-01-01

    The discovery of mirror neurons in macaques and of a similar system in humans has provided a new and fertile neurobiological ground for rooting a variety of cognitive faculties. Automatic sensorimotor resonance has been invoked as the key elementary process accounting for disparate (dys)functions, like imitation, ideomotor apraxia, autism, and schizophrenia. In this paper, we provide a critical appraisal of three of these claims that deal with the relationship between language and the motor system. Does language comprehension require the motor system? Was there an evolutionary switch from manual gestures to speech as the primary mode of language? Is human communication explained by automatic sensorimotor resonances? A positive answer to these questions would open the tantalizing possibility of bringing language and human communication within the fold of the motor system. We argue that the available empirical evidence does not appear to support these claims, and their theoretical scope fails to account for some crucial features of the phenomena they are supposed to explain. Without denying the enormous importance of the discovery of mirror neurons, we highlight the limits of their explanatory power for understanding language and communication.

  12. Structures, Not Strings: Linguistics as Part of the Cognitive Sciences.

    PubMed

    Everaert, Martin B H; Huybregts, Marinus A C; Chomsky, Noam; Berwick, Robert C; Bolhuis, Johan J

    2015-12-01

    There are many questions one can ask about human language: its distinctive properties, neural representation, characteristic uses including use in communicative contexts, variation, growth in the individual, and origin. Every such inquiry is guided by some concept of what 'language' is. Sharpening the core question--what is language?--and paying close attention to the basic property of the language faculty and its biological foundations makes it clear how linguistics is firmly positioned within the cognitive sciences. Here we will show how recent developments in generative grammar, taking language as a computational cognitive mechanism seriously, allow us to address issues left unexplained in the increasingly popular surface-oriented approaches to language. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Internationalizing the Business Professor: A Collaborative Effort.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Slonaker, William M.; Cannon, Emilie T.

    This paper recounts how two university colleagues, a business faculty member and a foreign language faculty member, benefited from their interdisciplinary contact as student and as teacher. Mutual anxieties, new language learning techniques using computers, and culture are discussed in a stylized dialogue between the two faculty members. From the…

  14. Language and Literature Division, Faculty of Education, Hong Kong University

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Qin, Xie; Andrews, Stephen

    2010-01-01

    The Language and Literature Division (LLD) is the largest of the six divisions of the Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong (HKU). It is currently home to 34 academic staff, who specialize either in the fields of Chinese Language, English Language and/or Literature Education, and to 60 full-time and 28 part-time doctoral students, who are…

  15. Bilingual First Language Acquisition: Exploring the Limits of the Language Faculty.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Genesee, Fred

    2001-01-01

    Reviews current research in three domains of bilingual acquisition: pragmatic features of bilingual code mixing, grammatical constraints on child bilingual code mixing, and bilingual syntactic development. Examines implications from these domains for the understanding of the limits of the mental faculty to acquire language. (Author/VWL)

  16. A Formal Language Selection Process for Introductory Programming Courses

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Parker, Kevin R.; Chao, Joseph T.; Ottaway, Thomas A.; Chang, Jane

    2006-01-01

    The selection of a programming language for introductory courses has long been an informal process involving faculty evaluation, discussion, and consensus. As the number of faculty, students, and language options grows, this process becomes increasingly unwieldy. As it stands, the process currently lacks structure and replicability. Establishing a…

  17. What Can Happen When Business and Language Faculty Cooperate across an Ocean?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bryant, Michael; Karney, Dennis; Vigier, Mary

    2010-01-01

    Management schools are expected to educate future professionals with the necessary skills to operate successfully in a global business environment. In this paper, the authors analyze and reflect on an experiment in interdisciplinary cooperation undertaken by business faculty at a US university and language faculty at a French School of Management.…

  18. Is recursion language-specific? Evidence of recursive mechanisms in the structure of intentional action.

    PubMed

    Vicari, Giuseppe; Adenzato, Mauro

    2014-05-01

    In their 2002 seminal paper Hauser, Chomsky and Fitch hypothesize that recursion is the only human-specific and language-specific mechanism of the faculty of language. While debate focused primarily on the meaning of recursion in the hypothesis and on the human-specific and syntax-specific character of recursion, the present work focuses on the claim that recursion is language-specific. We argue that there are recursive structures in the domain of motor intentionality by way of extending John R. Searle's analysis of intentional action. We then discuss evidence from cognitive science and neuroscience supporting the claim that motor-intentional recursion is language-independent and suggest some explanatory hypotheses: (1) linguistic recursion is embodied in sensory-motor processing; (2) linguistic and motor-intentional recursions are distinct and mutually independent mechanisms. Finally, we propose some reflections about the epistemic status of HCF as presenting an empirically falsifiable hypothesis, and on the possibility of testing recursion in different cognitive domains. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. School and Community Wellness: Transforming Achievement Using a Holistic Orientation to Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Oser, Rick; Beck, Ellen; Alvarado, Jose Luis; Pang, Valerie Ooka

    2014-01-01

    A comprehensive school and community wellness plan was developed and implemented to transform "Lemon Grove Academy" for the Sciences and Humanities, an urban school, where student achievement and faculty satisfaction has soared. The school has become the center for the local neighborhood where culture, language, and equity are valued.…

  20. The Interaction of Animacy and Morphosyntax in Arabic

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Melebari, Alaa

    2017-01-01

    The topic of this dissertation concerns the ways that (IN)ANIMACY distinctions interact with various sub-systems of the human language faculty, in particular, morpho-syntax. In Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), morpho-syntax and ANIMACY can be pit against each other directly on the same set of target words, allowing a close inspection of the…

  1. Statistical Segmentation of Tone Sequences Activates the Left Inferior Frontal Cortex: A Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Abla, Dilshat; Okanoya, Kazuo

    2008-01-01

    Word segmentation, that is, discovering the boundaries between words that are embedded in a continuous speech stream, is an important faculty for language learners; humans solve this task partly by calculating transitional probabilities between sounds. Behavioral and ERP studies suggest that detection of sequential probabilities (statistical…

  2. The Locus Preservation Hypothesis: Shared Linguistic Profiles across Developmental Disorders and the Resilient Part of the Human Language Faculty

    PubMed Central

    Leivada, Evelina; Kambanaros, Maria; Grohmann, Kleanthes K.

    2017-01-01

    Grammatical markers are not uniformly impaired across speakers of different languages, even when speakers share a diagnosis and the marker in question is grammaticalized in a similar way in these languages. The aim of this work is to demarcate, from a cross-linguistic perspective, the linguistic phenotype of three genetically heterogeneous developmental disorders: specific language impairment, Down syndrome, and autism spectrum disorder. After a systematic review of linguistic profiles targeting mainly English-, Greek-, Catalan-, and Spanish-speaking populations with developmental disorders (n = 880), shared loci of impairment are identified and certain domains of grammar are shown to be more vulnerable than others. The distribution of impaired loci is captured by the Locus Preservation Hypothesis which suggests that specific parts of the language faculty are immune to impairment across developmental disorders. Through the Locus Preservation Hypothesis, a classical chicken and egg question can be addressed: Do poor conceptual resources and memory limitations result in an atypical grammar or does a grammatical breakdown lead to conceptual and memory limitations? Overall, certain morphological markers reveal themselves as highly susceptible to impairment, while syntactic operations are preserved, granting support to the first scenario. The origin of resilient syntax is explained from a phylogenetic perspective in connection to the “syntax-before-phonology” hypothesis. PMID:29081756

  3. The mirror-neuron system.

    PubMed

    Rizzolatti, Giacomo; Craighero, Laila

    2004-01-01

    A category of stimuli of great importance for primates, humans in particular, is that formed by actions done by other individuals. If we want to survive, we must understand the actions of others. Furthermore, without action understanding, social organization is impossible. In the case of humans, there is another faculty that depends on the observation of others' actions: imitation learning. Unlike most species, we are able to learn by imitation, and this faculty is at the basis of human culture. In this review we present data on a neurophysiological mechanism--the mirror-neuron mechanism--that appears to play a fundamental role in both action understanding and imitation. We describe first the functional properties of mirror neurons in monkeys. We review next the characteristics of the mirror-neuron system in humans. We stress, in particular, those properties specific to the human mirror-neuron system that might explain the human capacity to learn by imitation. We conclude by discussing the relationship between the mirror-neuron system and language.

  4. Quality through Networking--From Reactive Administration to Proactive Cooperation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Karttu, Petri; Kiilunen, Liisa; Laulajainen, Tiina

    2012-01-01

    The Language Centre functions as an independent institute within the University of Helsinki. It provides services to all the faculties and units of the university by offering language services and doing its share in creating an international learning environment. Together, the Language Centre and the faculties have one goal in common, namely, a…

  5. International High School: Six Years New.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bush, Terrill H.

    1992-01-01

    Describes New York City's International High School, in which all students are limited English proficient, focusing on faculty language resources, cooperative education, interdisciplinary presentation of English as a Second Language, and shared faculty and staff leadership. (CB)

  6. Cultural neurolinguistics.

    PubMed

    Chen, Chuansheng; Xue, Gui; Mei, Leilei; Chen, Chunhui; Dong, Qi

    2009-01-01

    As the only species that evolved to possess a language faculty, humans have been surprisingly generative in creating a diverse array of language systems. These systems vary in phonology, morphology, syntax, and written forms. Before the advent of modern brain-imaging techniques, little was known about how differences across languages are reflected in the brain. This chapter aims to provide an overview of an emerging area of research - cultural neurolinguistics - that examines systematic cross-cultural/crosslinguistic variations in the neural networks of languages. We first briefly describe general brain networks for written and spoken languages. We then discuss language-specific brain regions by highlighting differences in neural bases of different scripts (logographic vs. alphabetic scripts), orthographies (transparent vs. nontransparent orthographies), and tonality (tonal vs. atonal languages). We also discuss neural basis of second language and the role of native language experience in second-language acquisition. In the last section, we outline a general model that integrates culture and neural bases of language and discuss future directions of research in this area.

  7. Research Self-Efficacy Sources and Research Motivation in a Foreign Language University Faculty in Mexico: Implications for Educational Policy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Reyes-Cruz, María del Rosario; Perales-Escudero, Moisés Damián

    2016-01-01

    The research self-efficacy and motivation of foreign language (FL) faculty in periphery countries is under-researched, yet there is a need to understand the impact of public policies that drive such faculty to conduct research. This paper reports a qualitative case study investigating research self-efficacy and research motivation in a group of…

  8. Focus on Form and Corrective Feedback Research at the University of Victoria, Canada

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chen, Sibo; Nassaji, Hossein

    2018-01-01

    The Department of Linguistics at University of Victoria (UVic) in Canada has a long-standing tradition of empirical approaches to the study of theoretical and applied linguistics. As part of the Faculty of Humanities, the department caters to students with a wide range of backgrounds and interests, and provides crucial language teaching support in…

  9. The linguistic roots of natural pedagogy.

    PubMed

    Mattos, Otávio; Hinzen, Wolfram

    2015-01-01

    Natural pedagogy is a human-specific capacity that allows us to acquire cultural information from communication even before the emergence of the first words, encompassing three core elements: (i) a sensitivity to ostensive signals like eye contact that indicate to infants that they are being addressed through communication, (ii) a subsequent referential expectation (satisfied by the use of declarative gestures) and (iii) a biased interpretation of ostensive-referential communication as conveying relevant information about the referent's kind (Csibra and Gergely, 2006, 2009, 2011). Remarkably, the link between natural pedagogy and another human-specific capacity, namely language, has rarely been investigated in detail. We here argue that children's production and comprehension of declarative gestures around 10 months of age are in fact expressions of an evolving faculty of language. Through both declarative gestures and ostensive signals, infants can assign the roles of third, second, and first person, building the 'deictic space' that grounds both natural pedagogy and language use. Secondly, we argue that the emergence of two kinds of linguistic structures (i.e., proto-determiner phrases and proto-sentences) in the one-word period sheds light on the different kinds of information that children can acquire or convey at different stages of development (namely, generic knowledge about kinds and knowledge about particular events/actions/state of affairs, respectively). Furthermore, the development of nominal and temporal reference in speech allows children to cognize information in terms of spatial and temporal relations. In this way, natural pedagogy transpires as an inherent aspect of our faculty of language, rather than as an independent adaptation that pre-dates language in evolution or development (Csibra and Gergely, 2006). This hypothesis is further testable through predictions it makes on the different linguistic profiles of toddlers with developmental disorders.

  10. The linguistic roots of natural pedagogy

    PubMed Central

    Mattos, Otávio; Hinzen, Wolfram

    2015-01-01

    Natural pedagogy is a human-specific capacity that allows us to acquire cultural information from communication even before the emergence of the first words, encompassing three core elements: (i) a sensitivity to ostensive signals like eye contact that indicate to infants that they are being addressed through communication, (ii) a subsequent referential expectation (satisfied by the use of declarative gestures) and (iii) a biased interpretation of ostensive-referential communication as conveying relevant information about the referent’s kind (Csibra and Gergely, 2006, 2009, 2011). Remarkably, the link between natural pedagogy and another human-specific capacity, namely language, has rarely been investigated in detail. We here argue that children’s production and comprehension of declarative gestures around 10 months of age are in fact expressions of an evolving faculty of language. Through both declarative gestures and ostensive signals, infants can assign the roles of third, second, and first person, building the ‘deictic space’ that grounds both natural pedagogy and language use. Secondly, we argue that the emergence of two kinds of linguistic structures (i.e., proto-determiner phrases and proto-sentences) in the one-word period sheds light on the different kinds of information that children can acquire or convey at different stages of development (namely, generic knowledge about kinds and knowledge about particular events/actions/state of affairs, respectively). Furthermore, the development of nominal and temporal reference in speech allows children to cognize information in terms of spatial and temporal relations. In this way, natural pedagogy transpires as an inherent aspect of our faculty of language, rather than as an independent adaptation that pre-dates language in evolution or development (Csibra and Gergely, 2006). This hypothesis is further testable through predictions it makes on the different linguistic profiles of toddlers with developmental disorders. PMID:26441794

  11. A Debate over the Teaching of a Legacy Programming Language in an Information Technology (IT) Program

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ali, Azad; Smith, David

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents a debate between two faculty members regarding the teaching of the legacy programming course (COBOL) in a Computer Science (CS) program. Among the two faculty members, one calls for the continuation of teaching this language and the other calls for replacing it with another modern language. Although CS programs are notorious…

  12. Neurocomputational Consequences of Evolutionary Connectivity Changes in Perisylvian Language Cortex.

    PubMed

    Schomers, Malte R; Garagnani, Max; Pulvermüller, Friedemann

    2017-03-15

    The human brain sets itself apart from that of its primate relatives by specific neuroanatomical features, especially the strong linkage of left perisylvian language areas (frontal and temporal cortex) by way of the arcuate fasciculus (AF). AF connectivity has been shown to correlate with verbal working memory-a specifically human trait providing the foundation for language abilities-but a mechanistic explanation of any related causal link between anatomical structure and cognitive function is still missing. Here, we provide a possible explanation and link, by using neurocomputational simulations in neuroanatomically structured models of the perisylvian language cortex. We compare networks mimicking key features of cortical connectivity in monkeys and humans, specifically the presence of relatively stronger higher-order "jumping links" between nonadjacent perisylvian cortical areas in the latter, and demonstrate that the emergence of working memory for syllables and word forms is a functional consequence of this structural evolutionary change. We also show that a mere increase of learning time is not sufficient, but that this specific structural feature, which entails higher connectivity degree of relevant areas and shorter sensorimotor path length, is crucial. These results offer a better understanding of specifically human anatomical features underlying the language faculty and their evolutionary selection advantage. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Why do humans have superior language abilities compared to primates? Recently, a uniquely human neuroanatomical feature has been demonstrated in the strength of the arcuate fasciculus (AF), a fiber pathway interlinking the left-hemispheric language areas. Although AF anatomy has been related to linguistic skills, an explanation of how this fiber bundle may support language abilities is still missing. We use neuroanatomically structured computational models to investigate the consequences of evolutionary changes in language area connectivity and demonstrate that the human-specific higher connectivity degree and comparatively shorter sensorimotor path length implicated by the AF entail emergence of verbal working memory, a prerequisite for language learning. These results offer a better understanding of specifically human anatomical features for language and their evolutionary selection advantage. Copyright © 2017 Schomers et al.

  13. Coordinated Research in Robotics and Integrated Manufacturing.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1983-07-31

    of three research divisions: Robot Systems, Management Systems, and Integrated Design and Manufacturing, and involves about 40 faculty spanning the...keystone of their program. A relatively smaller level of effort is being supported within the Management Systems Division. This is the first annual...SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT 0 DESIGN DATABASES " ROBOT-BASED 0 HUMAN FACTORSMANUFACTURING • CAD CELL* PRODUCTIONMUCR LANNING * INTEGRATION LANGUAGE AND VIA LOCAL

  14. Centre-Embedded Structures Are a By-Product of Associative Learning and Working Memory Constraints: Evidence from Baboons ("Papio Papio")

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rey, Arnaud; Perruchet, Pierre; Fagot, Joel

    2012-01-01

    Influential theories have claimed that the ability for recursion forms the computational core of human language faculty distinguishing our communication system from that of other animals (Hauser, Chomsky, & Fitch, 2002). In the present study, we consider an alternative view on recursion by studying the contribution of associative and working…

  15. The evolution of the Faculty of Language from a Chomskyan perspective: bridging linguistics and biology.

    PubMed

    Longa, Victor Manuel

    2013-01-01

    While language was traditionally considered a purely cultural trait, the advent of Noam Chomsky's Generative Grammar in the second half of the twentieth century dramatically challenged that view. According to that theory, language is an innate feature, part of the human biological endowment. If language is indeed innate, it had to biologically evolve. This review has two main objectives: firstly, it characterizes from a Chomskyan perspective the evolutionary processes by which language could have come into being. Secondly, it proposes a new method for interpreting the archaeological record that radically differs from the usual types of evidence Paleoanthropology has concentrated on when dealing with language evolution: while archaeological remains have usually been regarded from the view of the behavior they could be associated with, the paper will consider archaeological remains from the view of the computational processes and capabilities at work for their production. This computational approach, illustrated with a computational analysis of prehistoric geometric engravings, will be used to challenge the usual generative thinking on language evolution, based on the high specificity of language. The paper argues that the biological machinery of language is neither specifically linguistic nor specifically human, although language itself can still be considered a species-specific innate trait. From such a view, language would be one of the consequences of a slight modification operated on an ancestral architecture shared with vertebrates.

  16. The critical factors that influence faculty attitudes and perceptions of teaching English as Second Language nursing students: A grounded theory research study.

    PubMed

    Starkey, Traci J

    2015-05-01

    As the demographics of the United States change, nursing will need to become more ethnically diverse in order to provide culturally responsive healthcare. Enrollment of English as Second Language nursing students is increasing; however, these students often encounter academic difficulties. The increase in English as Second Language nursing students in the classroom and clinical setting has posed challenges for nurse faculty. To explore the critical factors that influence faculty attitudes and perceptions of teaching English as Second Language nursing students. A grounded theory method based on the philosophical underpinnings of symbolic interactionism and pragmatism was used to explore the critical factors that influence faculty attitudes and perceptions of teaching English as Second Language nursing students. The study took place at various schools of nursing in the Southeast Florida area. Educators teaching in an associate, baccalaureate, and/or graduate nursing program at an accredited school of nursing. Semi-structured interviews and a focus group were conducted to collect data from nurse faculty. Data segments from interviews were coded, categorized, and analyzed. Theoretical sampling and a focus group interview were used to validate the concepts, themes, and categories identified during the individual interviews. A substantive level theory was developed. The core category that developed was conscientization. The three dominant categories that emerged from the data were overcoming, coming to know, and facilitating. The theoretical framework of conscientization provided an explanation of the social processes involved in teaching English as Second Language nursing students. The theoretical framework developed from this study can be used to increase the effectiveness of teaching English as Second Language nursing students, improve their chances of success, and enhance diversity in the nursing profession. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Preparing the Faculty. Faculty Development for the Microcomputing Program.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Drexel Univ., Philadelphia, PA. Microcomputing Program.

    The preparation of Drexel University faculty for the introduction of a microcomputing program is described. Faculty training had to be done on a variety of levels, from basic training in computer operation for the novice to advanced training in highly technical procedures and languages. Maximum faculty participation was sought throughout the…

  18. Behavioural relevance of atypical language lateralization in healthy subjects.

    PubMed

    Knecht, S; Dräger, B; Flöel, A; Lohmann, H; Breitenstein, C; Deppe, M; Henningsen, H; Ringelstein, E B

    2001-08-01

    In most humans, language is lateralized to the left side of the brain. It has been speculated that this hemispheric specialization is a prerequisite for the full realization of linguistic potential. Using standardized questionnaires and performance measures, we attempted to determine if there are behavioural correlates of atypical, i.e. right-hemispheric and bilateral, language lateralization. The side and degree of language lateralization were determined by measuring the hemispheric perfusion differences by functional transcranial Doppler ultrasonography during a word generation task in healthy volunteers. Subjects with left (n = 264), bilateral (n = 31) or right (n = 31) hemisphere language representation did not differ significantly with respect to mastery of foreign languages, academic achievement, artistic talents, verbal fluency or (as assessed in a representative subgroup) in intelligence or speed of linguistic processing. These findings suggest that atypical hemispheric specialization for language, i.e. right-hemisphere or bilateral specialization, is not associated with major impairments of linguistic faculties in otherwise healthy subjects.

  19. Are languages really independent from genes? If not, what would a genetic bias affecting language diversity look like?

    PubMed

    Dediu, Dan

    2011-04-01

    It is generally accepted that the relationship between human genes and language is very complex and multifaceted. This has its roots in the “regular” complexity governing the interplay among genes and between genes and environment for most phenotypes, but with the added layer of supraontogenetic and supra-individual processes defining culture. At the coarsest level, focusing on the species, it is clear that human-specific--but not necessarily faculty-specific--genetic factors subtend our capacity for language and a currently very productive research program is aiming at uncovering them. At the other end of the spectrum, it is uncontroversial that individual-level variations in different aspects related to speech and language have an important genetic component and their discovery and detailed characterization have already started to revolutionize the way we think about human nature. However, at the intermediate, glossogenetic/population level, the relationship becomes controversial, partly due to deeply ingrained beliefs about language acquisition and universality and partly because of confusions with a different type of gene-languages correlation due to shared history. Nevertheless, conceptual, mathematical and computational models--and, recently, experimental evidence from artificial languages and songbirds--have repeatedly shown that genetic biases affecting the acquisition or processing of aspects of language and speech can be amplified by population-level intergenerational cultural processes and made manifest either as fixed “universal” properties of language or as structured linguistic diversity. Here, I review several such models as well as the recently proposed case of a causal relationship between the distribution of tone languages and two genes related to brain growth and development, ASPM and Microcephalin, and I discuss the relevance of such genetic biasing for language evolution, change, and diversity.

  20. Agreement between the Board of Trustees of the California State University and the California Faculty Association, Unit 3--Faculty, August 16, 1983-June 30, 1986 and New Contract Language Changes to Agreement, July 1, 1984-June 30, 1986.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    California State Postsecondary Education Commission, Sacramento.

    The collective bargaining agreement between California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees and the California Faculty Association (CFA) for the period covering August 16, 1983-June 30, 1986 is presented. New contract language changes to the agreement for July 1, 1984-June 30, 1986 are also presented. This American Association of University…

  1. Anadolu University, Open Education Faculty, Turkish Language and Literature Department Graduated Students' Views towards Pedagogical Formation Training Certificate, Special Teaching Methods Courses and Turkish Language and Literature Education from: Sample of Turkey

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bulut, Mesut

    2016-01-01

    The aim of this study is to find out Anadolu University Open Education Faculty Turkish Language and Literature graduated students' views towards Pedagogical Formation Training certificate and their opinions about special teaching methods. This study has been done in one of the universities of East Karadeniz in Turkey in which the 20 Turkish…

  2. Schizophrenia and Human Self-Domestication: An Evolutionary Linguistics Approach.

    PubMed

    Benítez-Burraco, Antonio; Di Pietro, Lorena; Barba, Marta; Lattanzi, Wanda

    2017-01-01

    Schizophrenia (SZ) is a pervasive neurodevelopmental disorder that entails social and cognitive deficits, including marked language problems. Its complex multifactorial etiopathogenesis, including genetic and environmental factors, is still widely uncertain. SZ incidence has always been high and quite stable in human populations, across time and regardless of cultural implications, for unclear reasons. It has been hypothesized that SZ pathophysiology may involve the biological components that changed during the recent human evolutionary history, and led to our distinctive mode of cognition, which includes language skills. In this paper we explore this hypothesis, focusing on the self-domestication of the human species. This has been claimed to account for many human-specific distinctive traits, including aspects of our behavior and cognition, and to favor the emergence of complex languages through cultural evolution. The "domestication syndrome" in mammals comprises the constellation of traits exhibited by domesticated strains, seemingly resulting from the hypofunction of the neural crest. It is our intention to show that people with SZ exhibit more marked domesticated traits at the morphological, physiological, and behavioral levels. We also show that genes involved in domestication and neural crest development and function comprise nearly 20% of SZ candidates, most of which exhibit altered expression profiles in the brain of SZ patients, specifically in areas involved in language processing. Based on these observations, we conclude that SZ may represent an abnormal ontogenetic itinerary for the human faculty of language, resulting, at least in part, from changes in genes important for the domestication syndrome and primarily involving the neural crest. © 2017 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  3. Bridging the Gap between Genes and Language Deficits in Schizophrenia: An Oscillopathic Approach

    PubMed Central

    Murphy, Elliot; Benítez-Burraco, Antonio

    2016-01-01

    Schizophrenia is characterized by marked language deficits, but it is not clear how these deficits arise from the alteration of genes related to the disease. The goal of this paper is to aid the bridging of the gap between genes and schizophrenia and, ultimately, give support to the view that the abnormal presentation of language in this condition is heavily rooted in the evolutionary processes that brought about modern language. To that end we will focus on how the schizophrenic brain processes language and, particularly, on its distinctive oscillatory profile during language processing. Additionally, we will show that candidate genes for schizophrenia are overrepresented among the set of genes that are believed to be important for the evolution of the human faculty of language. These genes crucially include (and are related to) genes involved in brain rhythmicity. We will claim that this translational effort and the links we uncover may help develop an understanding of language evolution, along with the etiology of schizophrenia, its clinical/linguistic profile, and its high prevalence among modern populations. PMID:27601987

  4. United States Air Force Summer Faculty Research Program (1987). Program Technical Report. Volume 1.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1987-12-01

    Mechanical Engineering Specialty: Engineering Science Rose-Hulman Institute Assigned: APL 5500 Wabash Avenue - Terre Haute, IN 47803 (812) 877-1511 Dr...Professor/Di rector 1973 Dept. of Humanities Specialty: Literature/Language Rose-Hulman Inst. of Technology Assigned: HRL/LR 5500 Wabash Avenue - Terre...1976 Assistant Professor Specialty: Computer Science Dept. of Computer Science Assigned: AL Rose-Hulman Inst. of Technology 5500 Wabash Ave. Terre Haute

  5. The Blended Learning Environment on the Foreign Language Learning Process: A Balance for Motivation and Achievement

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Isiguzel, Bahar

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to determine the effects on motivation and success within the application of blended learning environments in the foreign language class. The research sample is formed by third grade students studying in the tourism and hotel management programs of the faculty for tourism and the faculty of economics and administrative…

  6. Learning bias, cultural evolution of language, and the biological evolution of the language faculty.

    PubMed

    Smith, Kenny

    2011-04-01

    The biases of individual language learners act to determine the learnability and cultural stability of languages: learners come to the language learning task with biases which make certain linguistic systems easier to acquire than others. These biases are repeatedly applied during the process of language transmission, and consequently should effect the types of languages we see in human populations. Understanding the cultural evolutionary consequences of particular learning biases is therefore central to understanding the link between language learning in individuals and language universals, common structural properties shared by all the world’s languages. This paper reviews a range of models and experimental studies which show that weak biases in individual learners can have strong effects on the structure of socially learned systems such as language, suggesting that strong universal tendencies in language structure do not require us to postulate strong underlying biases or constraints on language learning. Furthermore, understanding the relationship between learner biases and language design has implications for theories of the evolution of those learning biases: models of gene-culture coevolution suggest that, in situations where a cultural dynamic mediates between properties of individual learners and properties of language in this way, biological evolution is unlikely to lead to the emergence of strong constraints on learning.

  7. Linguistics in Language Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kumar, Rajesh; Yunus, Reva

    2014-01-01

    This article looks at the contribution of insights from theoretical linguistics to an understanding of language acquisition and the nature of language in terms of their potential benefit to language education. We examine the ideas of innateness and universal language faculty, as well as multilingualism and the language-society relationship. Modern…

  8. Faculty Development. [SITE 2002 Section].

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gillan, Bob, Ed.; McFerrin, Karen, Ed.

    This document contains the papers on faculty development from the SITE (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education) 2002 conference. Topics covered include: integration for ESL (English as a Second Language) success; changing roles of college faculty; inducing reflection on educational practice; a joint instructional technology and…

  9. How could language have evolved?

    PubMed

    Bolhuis, Johan J; Tattersall, Ian; Chomsky, Noam; Berwick, Robert C

    2014-08-01

    The evolution of the faculty of language largely remains an enigma. In this essay, we ask why. Language's evolutionary analysis is complicated because it has no equivalent in any nonhuman species. There is also no consensus regarding the essential nature of the language "phenotype." According to the "Strong Minimalist Thesis," the key distinguishing feature of language (and what evolutionary theory must explain) is hierarchical syntactic structure. The faculty of language is likely to have emerged quite recently in evolutionary terms, some 70,000-100,000 years ago, and does not seem to have undergone modification since then, though individual languages do of course change over time, operating within this basic framework. The recent emergence of language and its stability are both consistent with the Strong Minimalist Thesis, which has at its core a single repeatable operation that takes exactly two syntactic elements a and b and assembles them to form the set {a, b}.

  10. How Could Language Have Evolved?

    PubMed Central

    Bolhuis, Johan J.; Tattersall, Ian; Chomsky, Noam; Berwick, Robert C.

    2014-01-01

    The evolution of the faculty of language largely remains an enigma. In this essay, we ask why. Language's evolutionary analysis is complicated because it has no equivalent in any nonhuman species. There is also no consensus regarding the essential nature of the language “phenotype.” According to the “Strong Minimalist Thesis,” the key distinguishing feature of language (and what evolutionary theory must explain) is hierarchical syntactic structure. The faculty of language is likely to have emerged quite recently in evolutionary terms, some 70,000–100,000 years ago, and does not seem to have undergone modification since then, though individual languages do of course change over time, operating within this basic framework. The recent emergence of language and its stability are both consistent with the Strong Minimalist Thesis, which has at its core a single repeatable operation that takes exactly two syntactic elements a and b and assembles them to form the set {a, b}. PMID:25157536

  11. A Bird’s Eye View of Human Language Evolution

    PubMed Central

    Berwick, Robert C.; Beckers, Gabriël J. L.; Okanoya, Kazuo; Bolhuis, Johan J.

    2012-01-01

    Comparative studies of linguistic faculties in animals pose an evolutionary paradox: language involves certain perceptual and motor abilities, but it is not clear that this serves as more than an input–output channel for the externalization of language proper. Strikingly, the capability for auditory–vocal learning is not shared with our closest relatives, the apes, but is present in such remotely related groups as songbirds and marine mammals. There is increasing evidence for behavioral, neural, and genetic similarities between speech acquisition and birdsong learning. At the same time, researchers have applied formal linguistic analysis to the vocalizations of both primates and songbirds. What have all these studies taught us about the evolution of language? Is the comparative study of an apparently species-specific trait like language feasible? We argue that comparative analysis remains an important method for the evolutionary reconstruction and causal analysis of the mechanisms underlying language. On the one hand, common descent has been important in the evolution of the brain, such that avian and mammalian brains may be largely homologous, particularly in the case of brain regions involved in auditory perception, vocalization, and auditory memory. On the other hand, there has been convergent evolution of the capacity for auditory–vocal learning, and possibly for structuring of external vocalizations, such that apes lack the abilities that are shared between songbirds and humans. However, significant limitations to this comparative analysis remain. While all birdsong may be classified in terms of a particularly simple kind of concatenation system, the regular languages, there is no compelling evidence to date that birdsong matches the characteristic syntactic complexity of human language, arising from the composition of smaller forms like words and phrases into larger ones. PMID:22518103

  12. How to Verify Plagiarism of the Paper Written in Macedonian and Translated in Foreign Language?

    PubMed Central

    Spiroski, Mirko

    2016-01-01

    AIM: The aim of this study was to show how to verify plagiarism of the paper written in Macedonian and translated in foreign language. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Original article “Ethics in Medical Research Involving Human Subjects”, written in Macedonian, was submitted as an assay-2 for the subject Ethics and published by Ilina Stefanovska, PhD candidate from the Iustinianus Primus Faculty of Law, Ss Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje (UKIM), Skopje, Republic of Macedonia in Fabruary, 2013. Suspected article for plagiarism was published by Prof. Dr. Gordana Panova from the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University Goce Delchev, Shtip, Republic of Macedonia in English with the identical title and identical content in International scientific on-line journal “SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGIES”, Publisher “Union of Scientists - Stara Zagora”. RESULTS: Original document (written in Macedonian) was translated with Google Translator; suspected article (published in English pdf file) was converted into Word document, and compared both documents with several programs for plagiarism detection. It was found that both documents are identical in 71%, 78% and 82%, respectively, depending on the computer program used for plagiarism detection. It was obvious that original paper was entirely plagiarised by Prof. Dr. Gordana Panova, including six references from the original paper. CONCLUSION: Plagiarism of the original papers written in Macedonian and translated in other languages can be verified after computerised translation in other languages. Later on, original and translated documents can be compared with available software for plagiarism detection. PMID:27275319

  13. How to Verify Plagiarism of the Paper Written in Macedonian and Translated in Foreign Language?

    PubMed

    Spiroski, Mirko

    2016-03-15

    The aim of this study was to show how to verify plagiarism of the paper written in Macedonian and translated in foreign language. Original article "Ethics in Medical Research Involving Human Subjects", written in Macedonian, was submitted as an assay-2 for the subject Ethics and published by Ilina Stefanovska, PhD candidate from the Iustinianus Primus Faculty of Law, Ss Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje (UKIM), Skopje, Republic of Macedonia in Fabruary, 2013. Suspected article for plagiarism was published by Prof. Dr. Gordana Panova from the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University Goce Delchev, Shtip, Republic of Macedonia in English with the identical title and identical content in International scientific on-line journal "SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGIES", Publisher "Union of Scientists - Stara Zagora". Original document (written in Macedonian) was translated with Google Translator; suspected article (published in English pdf file) was converted into Word document, and compared both documents with several programs for plagiarism detection. It was found that both documents are identical in 71%, 78% and 82%, respectively, depending on the computer program used for plagiarism detection. It was obvious that original paper was entirely plagiarised by Prof. Dr. Gordana Panova, including six references from the original paper. Plagiarism of the original papers written in Macedonian and translated in other languages can be verified after computerised translation in other languages. Later on, original and translated documents can be compared with available software for plagiarism detection.

  14. An Analysis of Academic Library Web Pages for Faculty

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gardner, Susan J.; Juricek, John Eric; Xu, F. Grace

    2008-01-01

    Web sites are increasingly used by academic libraries to promote key services and collections to teaching faculty. This study analyzes the content, location, language, and technological features of fifty-four academic library Web pages designed especially for faculty to expose patterns in the development of these pages.

  15. The Marc Dax (1770-1837)/Paul Broca (1824-1880) Controversy over Priority in Science: Left Hemisphere Specificity for Seat of Articulate Language and for Lesions that Cause Aphemia

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Buckingham, Hugh W.

    2006-01-01

    One of the most fascinating and frustrating issues in the priority of discovery in science is over just who, for the first time, went on record in the public forum, either orally at a conference or through a published communication, proclaiming that the faculty of articulate human speech was located in the left, not the right, cortical hemisphere.…

  16. Foreign Language Anxiety of Students Studying English Language and Literature: A Sample from Turkey

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Elaldi, Senel

    2016-01-01

    A considerable number of foreign language learners experience a feeling of anxiety in language learning process. The purpose of this research was to find out foreign language anxiety levels of students studying in the Faculty of English Language and Literature at Cumhuriyet University, Sivas, Turkey when they were in preparatory class and when…

  17. Linguistic Evolution through Language Acquisition: Formal and Computational Models.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Briscoe, Ted, Ed.

    This collection of papers examines how children acquire language and how this affects language change over the generations. It proceeds from the basis that it is important to address not only the language faculty per se within the framework of evolutionary theory, but also the origins and subsequent development of languages themselves, suggesting…

  18. Do We Speak the Same Language? A Study of Faculty Perceptions of Information Literacy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cope, Jonathan; Sanabria, Jesús E.

    2014-01-01

    The authors analyze twenty in-depth interviews with faculty members about how they perceive information literacy (IL) to examine two key factors: how disciplinary background influences conceptions of IL among faculty members in academic departments and how the instructors' perception of information literacy differs from that of professionals in…

  19. A Case for Faculty Involvement in EAP Placement Testing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    James, Cindy; Templeman, Elizabeth

    2009-01-01

    The EAP placement procedure at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) involves multiple measures to assess the language skills of incoming students, some of which are facilitated and all of which are assessed by ESL faculty. In order to determine the effectiveness of this comprehensive EAP placement process and the effect of the faculty factor, a…

  20. Language, Culture & Technology

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lum, Lydia

    2006-01-01

    Nationally, foreign language faculty have been adjusting their curricula to ensure that today's college students know how to use technology to communicate effectively in languages other than their native tongue. Once upon a time, students were considered fluent if they could read, write, speak and aurally comprehend a foreign language. However…

  1. On recursion.

    PubMed

    Watumull, Jeffrey; Hauser, Marc D; Roberts, Ian G; Hornstein, Norbert

    2014-01-08

    It is a truism that conceptual understanding of a hypothesis is required for its empirical investigation. However, the concept of recursion as articulated in the context of linguistic analysis has been perennially confused. Nowhere has this been more evident than in attempts to critique and extend Hauseretal's. (2002) articulation. These authors put forward the hypothesis that what is uniquely human and unique to the faculty of language-the faculty of language in the narrow sense (FLN)-is a recursive system that generates and maps syntactic objects to conceptual-intentional and sensory-motor systems. This thesis was based on the standard mathematical definition of recursion as understood by Gödel and Turing, and yet has commonly been interpreted in other ways, most notably and incorrectly as a thesis about the capacity for syntactic embedding. As we explain, the recursiveness of a function is defined independent of such output, whether infinite or finite, embedded or unembedded-existent or non-existent. And to the extent that embedding is a sufficient, though not necessary, diagnostic of recursion, it has not been established that the apparent restriction on embedding in some languages is of any theoretical import. Misunderstanding of these facts has generated research that is often irrelevant to the FLN thesis as well as to other theories of language competence that focus on its generative power of expression. This essay is an attempt to bring conceptual clarity to such discussions as well as to future empirical investigations by explaining three criterial properties of recursion: computability (i.e., rules in intension rather than lists in extension); definition by induction (i.e., rules strongly generative of structure); and mathematical induction (i.e., rules for the principled-and potentially unbounded-expansion of strongly generated structure). By these necessary and sufficient criteria, the grammars of all natural languages are recursive.

  2. Comparison Between Manual Auditing and a Natural Language Process With Machine Learning Algorithm to Evaluate Faculty Use of Standardized Reports in Radiology.

    PubMed

    Guimaraes, Carolina V; Grzeszczuk, Robert; Bisset, George S; Donnelly, Lane F

    2018-03-01

    When implementing or monitoring department-sanctioned standardized radiology reports, feedback about individual faculty performance has been shown to be a useful driver of faculty compliance. Most commonly, these data are derived from manual audit, which can be both time-consuming and subject to sampling error. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether a software program using natural language processing and machine learning could accurately audit radiologist compliance with the use of standardized reports compared with performed manual audits. Radiology reports from a 1-month period were loaded into such a software program, and faculty compliance with use of standardized reports was calculated. For that same period, manual audits were performed (25 reports audited for each of 42 faculty members). The mean compliance rates calculated by automated auditing were then compared with the confidence interval of the mean rate by manual audit. The mean compliance rate for use of standardized reports as determined by manual audit was 91.2% with a confidence interval between 89.3% and 92.8%. The mean compliance rate calculated by automated auditing was 92.0%, within that confidence interval. This study shows that by use of natural language processing and machine learning algorithms, an automated analysis can accurately define whether reports are compliant with use of standardized report templates and language, compared with manual audits. This may avoid significant labor costs related to conducting the manual auditing process. Copyright © 2017 American College of Radiology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Language Evolution: Why Hockett's Design Features are a Non-Starter.

    PubMed

    Wacewicz, Sławomir; Żywiczyński, Przemysław

    The set of design features developed by Charles Hockett in the 1950s and 1960s remains probably the most influential means of juxtaposing animal communication with human language. However, the general theoretical perspective of Hockett is largely incompatible with that of modern language evolution research. Consequently, we argue that his classificatory system-while useful for some descriptive purposes-is of very limited use as a theoretical framework for evolutionary linguistics. We see this incompatibility as related to the ontology of language, i.e. deriving from Hockett's interest in language as a product rather than a suite of sensorimotor, cognitive and social abilities that enable the use but also acquisition of language by biological creatures (the faculty of language ). After a reconstruction of Hockett's views on design features, we raise two criticisms: focus on the means at the expense of content and focus on the code itself rather than the cognitive abilities of its users . Finally, referring to empirical data, we illustrate some of the problems resulting from Hockett's approach by addressing three specific points-namely arbitrariness and semanticity , cultural transmission , and displacement -and show how the change of perspective allows to overcome those difficulties.

  4. Is the decline of human anatomy hazardous to medical education/profession?--A review.

    PubMed

    Singh, Rajani; Shane Tubbs, R; Gupta, Kavita; Singh, Man; Jones, D Gareth; Kumar, Raj

    2015-12-01

    The continuous decrease in teaching time, the artificially created scarcity of competent anatomical faculties and a reduced allocation of resources have brought about the decline of anatomy in medical education. As a result of this, anatomical knowledge and the standard of medical education have fallen with consequences including safety in clinical practice. The aim of the present study is to analyze this declining phase of anatomy and its impact on medical education and to consider corrective measures. This article expresses comparative viewpoints based on a review of the literature. Anatomy enables doctors to master the language of medical science so they can communicate with patients, the public and fellow doctors and diagnose and treat diseases successfully in all medical fields. No medical specialist or expert can master their field without adequate knowledge of human anatomy. The shrinkage of anatomical schedules, inadequate faculties and declining allocation of resources is therefore unfortunate. These factors produce stress in both student and faculty creating gaps in anatomical knowledge that means insufficient skill is developed to practice medicine safely. This decline is hazardous not only to the medical profession but also to society. Reforms consisting of balanced rescheduling of medical curricula and optimum resource allocation have been proposed to improve the standard of education of doctors.

  5. Brain responses in 4-month-old infants are already language specific.

    PubMed

    Friederici, Angela D; Friedrich, Manuela; Christophe, Anne

    2007-07-17

    Language is the most important faculty that distinguishes humans from other animals. Infants learn their native language fast and effortlessly during the first years of life, as a function of the linguistic input in their environment. Behavioral studies reported the discrimination of melodic contours [1] and stress patterns [2, 3] in 1-4-month-olds. Behavioral [4, 5] and brain measures [6-8] have shown language-independent discrimination of phonetic contrasts at that age. Language-specific discrimination, however, has been reported for phonetic contrasts only for 6-12-month-olds [9-12]. Here we demonstrate language-specific discrimination of stress patterns in 4-month-old German and French infants by using electrophysiological brain measures. We compare the processing of disyllabic words differing in their rhythmic structure, mimicking German words being stressed on the first syllable, e.g., pápa/daddy[13], and French ones being stressed on the second syllable, e.g., papá/daddy. Event-related brain potentials reveal that experience with German and French differentially affects the brain responses of 4-month-old infants, with each language group displaying a processing advantage for the rhythmic structure typical in its native language. These data indicate language-specific neural representations of word forms in the infant brain as early as 4 months of age.

  6. Faculty Feelings as Writers: Relationship with Writing Genres, Perceived Competences, and Values Associated to Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    del Pilar Gallego Castaño, Liliana; Castelló Badia, Montserrat; Badia Garganté, Antoni

    2016-01-01

    This study attempts to relate faculty feelings towards writing with writing genres, perceived competences and values associated to writing. 67 foreign languages faculty in Colombia and Spain voluntarily filled in a four-section on-line questionnaire entitled "The Writing Feelings Questionnaire." All the sections were Likert Scale type.…

  7. The Utilization of Web-Based Technology as Predictor of Faculty Insights of Support for the Implementation of ELearning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ghaemi, Hamed

    2011-01-01

    This study investigates the level of implementation of web-based instructional technology (WBIT) by the in-teaching faculties of English Language departments as factor related to faculty perception of institutional mechanisms and its partial significance as condition supporting the implementation of e-learning in university education. Using a…

  8. Beyond Compliance: ESL Faculty's Perspectives on Preparing General Education Faculty for ESL Infusion

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    de Jong, Ester J.; Naranjo, Cindy; Li, Shuzhan; Ouzia, ­Aicha

    2018-01-01

    The trend of placing English language learners (ELLs) in mainstream classrooms has teacher education programs developing their capacity to prepare all teachers to educate ELLs. This study examined how universities in Florida implement a professional development requirement to help faculty infuse ELL content into their courses. Our findings suggest…

  9. Proceedings 2012: Selected Papers from the Sixteenth College-Wide Conference for Students in Languages, Linguistics & Literature (16th, Honolulu, Hawai'i, April 21, 2012)

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ahn, Hyunah, Ed.; Vidal, Mónica, Ed.

    2012-01-01

    The theme for this year's College of Languages, Linguistics, and Literature at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa was "Language and Community," bringing together graduate students and faculty members from the Departments of East Asian Languages and Literatures (EALL), Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures (IPLL), Languages and…

  10. Culture shapes the evolution of cognition.

    PubMed

    Thompson, Bill; Kirby, Simon; Smith, Kenny

    2016-04-19

    A central debate in cognitive science concerns the nativist hypothesis, the proposal that universal features of behavior reflect a biologically determined cognitive substrate: For example, linguistic nativism proposes a domain-specific faculty of language that strongly constrains which languages can be learned. An evolutionary stance appears to provide support for linguistic nativism, because coordinated constraints on variation may facilitate communication and therefore be adaptive. However, language, like many other human behaviors, is underpinned by social learning and cultural transmission alongside biological evolution. We set out two models of these interactions, which show how culture can facilitate rapid biological adaptation yet rule out strong nativization. The amplifying effects of culture can allow weak cognitive biases to have significant population-level consequences, radically increasing the evolvability of weak, defeasible inductive biases; however, the emergence of a strong cultural universal does not imply, nor lead to, nor require, strong innate constraints. From this we must conclude, on evolutionary grounds, that the strong nativist hypothesis for language is false. More generally, because such reciprocal interactions between cultural and biological evolution are not limited to language, nativist explanations for many behaviors should be reconsidered: Evolutionary reasoning shows how we can have cognitively driven behavioral universals and yet extreme plasticity at the level of the individual-if, and only if, we account for the human capacity to transmit knowledge culturally. Wherever culture is involved, weak cognitive biases rather than strong innate constraints should be the default assumption.

  11. University faculty preparation of students in using natural environment practices with young children.

    PubMed

    Dunst, Carl J; Bruder, Mary Beth

    2005-02-01

    155 university faculty teaching students in physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech and language pathology, early childhood special education, or multidisciplinary studies programs were surveyed to assess how the students were taught how to use everyday family and community activities as natural learning opportunities for young children. Analysis showed that the faculty provided very little training in using community activity settings as contexts for children's learning and that physical therapy faculty provided less training in using natural environments as sources of children's learning opportunities than faculty in the other disciplines.

  12. African Language Instruction at the University of Wisconsin: A HEA Title VI-Funded Program.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kuntz, Patricia S.

    This paper describes the evolution of African language instruction at the University of Wisconsin, examining how faculty and staff have utilized state and federal funding to promote the national capacity in African language proficiency. Six sections describe the program's evolution: "Language Instruction at Wisconsin"; "Origins of…

  13. Assessing Japanese Language Needs for Business and Professional Use.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Saito, Yoshiko

    A study is reported that aimed to: (1) assess perceived needs of Japanese language by students and business faculty; (2) assess Japanese language needs of business professionals who work with Japan; (3) determine what language abilities and levels of proficiency are desired; and (4) identify perceived problem areas and ways that they are handled…

  14. The sign language skills classroom observation: a process for describing sign language proficiency in classroom settings.

    PubMed

    Reeves, J B; Newell, W; Holcomb, B R; Stinson, M

    2000-10-01

    In collaboration with teachers and students at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), the Sign Language Skills Classroom Observation (SLSCO) was designed to provide feedback to teachers on their sign language communication skills in the classroom. In the present article, the impetus and rationale for development of the SLSCO is discussed. Previous studies related to classroom signing and observation methodology are reviewed. The procedure for developing the SLSCO is then described. This procedure included (a) interviews with faculty and students at NTID, (b) identification of linguistic features of sign language important for conveying content to deaf students, (c) development of forms for recording observations of classroom signing, (d) analysis of use of the forms, (e) development of a protocol for conducting the SLSCO, and (f) piloting of the SLSCO in classrooms. The results of use of the SLSCO with NTID faculty during a trial year are summarized.

  15. The Importance of Subtextual Impression Management and Business Faculty.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chaney, Lillian H.; Lyden, Julie A.

    1998-01-01

    College students (n=265) reported their impressions of business faculty's personal appearance, body language, behavior, and office appearance. Findings indicate that impression management is useful for professors who want to convey credibility, authority, and interest in students. (JOW)

  16. Multilingual Faculty across Academic Disciplines: Language Difference in Scholarship

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cavazos, Alyssa G.

    2015-01-01

    Due to the dominance of the English language in scholarship, multilingual academics often encounter challenges in achieving academic biliteracy and identifying successful language negotiation practices in academia. Through personal interviews with self-identified multilingual academics across academic disciplines, this paper explores how they…

  17. Segregating the core computational faculty of human language from working memory.

    PubMed

    Makuuchi, Michiru; Bahlmann, Jörg; Anwander, Alfred; Friederici, Angela D

    2009-05-19

    In contrast to simple structures in animal vocal behavior, hierarchical structures such as center-embedded sentences manifest the core computational faculty of human language. Previous artificial grammar learning studies found that the left pars opercularis (LPO) subserves the processing of hierarchical structures. However, it is not clear whether this area is activated by the structural complexity per se or by the increased memory load entailed in processing hierarchical structures. To dissociate the effect of structural complexity from the effect of memory cost, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study of German sentence processing with a 2-way factorial design tapping structural complexity (with/without hierarchical structure, i.e., center-embedding of clauses) and working memory load (long/short distance between syntactically dependent elements; i.e., subject nouns and their respective verbs). Functional imaging data revealed that the processes for structure and memory operate separately but co-operatively in the left inferior frontal gyrus; activities in the LPO increased as a function of structural complexity, whereas activities in the left inferior frontal sulcus (LIFS) were modulated by the distance over which the syntactic information had to be transferred. Diffusion tensor imaging showed that these 2 regions were interconnected through white matter fibers. Moreover, functional coupling between the 2 regions was found to increase during the processing of complex, hierarchically structured sentences. These results suggest a neuroanatomical segregation of syntax-related aspects represented in the LPO from memory-related aspects reflected in the LIFS, which are, however, highly interconnected functionally and anatomically.

  18. Curriculum considerations for enhancing baccalaureate learning for international students.

    PubMed

    Pardue, Karen T; Haas, Barbara

    2003-01-01

    International students studying nursing in the United States present unique teaching opportunities and challenges. Student language, culture, and academic expectations are major factors for faculty to consider in delivering international education. An RN to BSN program provides baccalaureate completion study for registered nurses residing in Israel. Students can choose to complete the final semester in the United States. Israeli nursing students demonstrate a strong collectivistic orientation to their academic work. Issues related to English language fluency and academic paper preparation were identified. Success in international teaching endeavors is facilitated when faculty carefully evaluate course materials and assignments. Clarity of language, cultural expectations, and availability of academic resources are important considerations for promoting student success.

  19. Heritage Language Learners in Mixed Spanish Classes: Subtractive Practices and Perceptions of High School Spanish Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Randolph, Linwood J., Jr.

    2017-01-01

    This qualitative study investigated the language ideologies and instructional practices of an entire Spanish language faculty at a high school in a new gateway state for immigration. The study examined additive and subtractive practices of teachers as they strived to teach Spanish to heritage language learners (HLLs) enrolled in mixed…

  20. Teacher Evaluation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sayavedra, Melinda

    2014-01-01

    Accredited universities normally include a standard that addresses faculty evaluation. It may contain references to performance criteria and procedures and usually emphasizes the need for faculty evaluations to be systematic, regular, fair, objective and relevant to achieving the goals of the institution. Accredited language programs usually have…

  1. Revitalizing an Established Program for Adult Learners

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rice, Alison, Ed.

    2007-01-01

    Deliberately introducing change into an established English language program, in which faculty, students, and administrators are comfortable with courses and procedures, is unsettling and often costly. Why, then, would overworked program directors, coordinators, and faculty decide to overhaul their curricula, testing procedures, and academic…

  2. An Interview with John Liontas

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sadeghi, Karim

    2017-01-01

    John I. Liontas, Ph.D. is an associate professor of foreign languages, English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), and technology in education and second language acquisition (TESLA), and director and faculty of the TESLA doctoral program at the University of South Florida. Dr. Liontas is a distinguished thought leader, author, and…

  3. Working Conditions of Foreign Language Teachers: Results from a Pilot Survey

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lopez-Gomez, Coral; Albright, Jeremy J.

    2009-01-01

    Recent research has consistently shown that teacher working conditions are highly predictive of faculty turnover and student performance. However, very little work investigates specifically the experiences of foreign-language instructors. This paper reports results from a pilot survey of language teachers in public and private schools from across…

  4. Stakeholders' Qualitative Perspectives of Effective Telepractice Pedagogy in Speech-Language Pathology

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Overby, Megan S.

    2018-01-01

    Background: Academic programmes in speech-language pathology are increasingly providing telehealth/telepractice clinical education to students. Despite this growth, there is little information describing effective ways to teach it. Aims: The current exploratory study analyzed the perceptions of speech-language pathology/therapy (SLP/SLT) faculty,…

  5. 34 CFR 658.11 - What projects and activities may a grantee conduct under this program?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... STUDIES AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROGRAM What Kinds of Projects Does the Secretary Assist Under This Program... program to improve undergraduate instruction in international studies and foreign languages. These include... studies and foreign languages; (b) Teaching, research, curriculum development, faculty training in the...

  6. 34 CFR 658.11 - What projects and activities may a grantee conduct under this program?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... STUDIES AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROGRAM What Kinds of Projects Does the Secretary Assist Under This Program... program to improve undergraduate instruction in international studies and foreign languages. These include... studies and foreign languages; (b) Teaching, research, curriculum development, faculty training in the...

  7. 34 CFR 658.11 - What projects and activities may a grantee conduct under this program?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... STUDIES AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROGRAM What Kinds of Projects Does the Secretary Assist Under This Program... program to improve undergraduate instruction in international studies and foreign languages. These include... studies and foreign languages; (b) Teaching, research, curriculum development, faculty training in the...

  8. Metalinguistic Filters within the Bilingual Language Faculty: A Study of Young English-Chinese Bilinguals

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ong, Kenneth Keng Wee; Zhang, Lawrence Jun

    2010-01-01

    This study reports two metalinguistic parameters that constitute the schematic control of lateral inhibitory links between translation equivalents within the bilingual lexico-semantic system of Green's ("Bilingualism: Language and Cognition" 1:67-81, 1998a, "Bilingualism: Language and Cognition" 1:100-104, 1998b, "The…

  9. On recursion

    PubMed Central

    Watumull, Jeffrey; Hauser, Marc D.; Roberts, Ian G.; Hornstein, Norbert

    2014-01-01

    It is a truism that conceptual understanding of a hypothesis is required for its empirical investigation. However, the concept of recursion as articulated in the context of linguistic analysis has been perennially confused. Nowhere has this been more evident than in attempts to critique and extend Hauseretal's. (2002) articulation. These authors put forward the hypothesis that what is uniquely human and unique to the faculty of language—the faculty of language in the narrow sense (FLN)—is a recursive system that generates and maps syntactic objects to conceptual-intentional and sensory-motor systems. This thesis was based on the standard mathematical definition of recursion as understood by Gödel and Turing, and yet has commonly been interpreted in other ways, most notably and incorrectly as a thesis about the capacity for syntactic embedding. As we explain, the recursiveness of a function is defined independent of such output, whether infinite or finite, embedded or unembedded—existent or non-existent. And to the extent that embedding is a sufficient, though not necessary, diagnostic of recursion, it has not been established that the apparent restriction on embedding in some languages is of any theoretical import. Misunderstanding of these facts has generated research that is often irrelevant to the FLN thesis as well as to other theories of language competence that focus on its generative power of expression. This essay is an attempt to bring conceptual clarity to such discussions as well as to future empirical investigations by explaining three criterial properties of recursion: computability (i.e., rules in intension rather than lists in extension); definition by induction (i.e., rules strongly generative of structure); and mathematical induction (i.e., rules for the principled—and potentially unbounded—expansion of strongly generated structure). By these necessary and sufficient criteria, the grammars of all natural languages are recursive. PMID:24409164

  10. Listening as a Method of Learning a Foreign Language at the Non-Language Faculty of the University

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kondrateva, Irina G.; Safina, Minnisa S.; Valeev, Agzam A.

    2016-01-01

    Learning a foreign language is becoming an increasingly important with Russia's integration into the world community. In this regard, increased requirements for the educational process and the development of new innovative teaching methods meet the requirements of the time. One of the important aspects of learning a foreign language is listening…

  11. Ready…, Set, Go!. Comment on "Towards a Computational Comparative Neuroprimatology: Framing the language-ready brain" by Michael A. Arbib

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Iriki, Atsushi

    2016-03-01

    ;Language-READY brain; in the title of this article [1] seems to be the expression that the author prefers to use to illustrate his theoretical framework. The usage of the term ;READY; appears to be of extremely deep connotation, for three reasons. Firstly, of course it needs a ;principle; - the depth and the width of the computational theory depicted here is as expected from the author's reputation. However, ;readiness; implies that it is much more than just ;a theory;. That is, such a principle is not static, but it rather has dynamic properties, which are ready to gradually proceed to flourish once brains are put in adequate conditions to make time progressions - namely, evolution and development. So the second major connotation is that this article brought in the perspectives of the comparative primatology as a tool to relativise the language-realizing human brains among other animal species, primates in particular, in the context of evolutionary time scale. The tertiary connotation lies in the context of the developmental time scale. The author claims that it is the interaction of the newborn with its care takers, namely its mother and other family or social members in its ecological conditions, that brings the brain mechanism subserving language faculty to really mature to its final completion. Taken together, this article proposes computational theories and mechanisms of Evo-Devo-Eco interactions for language acquisition in the human brains.

  12. Culture shapes the evolution of cognition

    PubMed Central

    Thompson, Bill; Kirby, Simon; Smith, Kenny

    2016-01-01

    A central debate in cognitive science concerns the nativist hypothesis, the proposal that universal features of behavior reflect a biologically determined cognitive substrate: For example, linguistic nativism proposes a domain-specific faculty of language that strongly constrains which languages can be learned. An evolutionary stance appears to provide support for linguistic nativism, because coordinated constraints on variation may facilitate communication and therefore be adaptive. However, language, like many other human behaviors, is underpinned by social learning and cultural transmission alongside biological evolution. We set out two models of these interactions, which show how culture can facilitate rapid biological adaptation yet rule out strong nativization. The amplifying effects of culture can allow weak cognitive biases to have significant population-level consequences, radically increasing the evolvability of weak, defeasible inductive biases; however, the emergence of a strong cultural universal does not imply, nor lead to, nor require, strong innate constraints. From this we must conclude, on evolutionary grounds, that the strong nativist hypothesis for language is false. More generally, because such reciprocal interactions between cultural and biological evolution are not limited to language, nativist explanations for many behaviors should be reconsidered: Evolutionary reasoning shows how we can have cognitively driven behavioral universals and yet extreme plasticity at the level of the individual—if, and only if, we account for the human capacity to transmit knowledge culturally. Wherever culture is involved, weak cognitive biases rather than strong innate constraints should be the default assumption. PMID:27044094

  13. The evolution of language and thought.

    PubMed

    Lieberman, Philip

    2016-06-20

    Language primarily evolved as a vocal medium that transmits the attributes of human culture and the necessities of daily communication. Human language has a long, complex evolutionary history. Language also serves as an instrument of thought since it has become evident that in the course of this process neural circuits that initially evolved to regulate motor control, motor responses to external events, and ultimately talking were recycled to serve tasks such as working memory, cognitive flexibility linguistic tasks such as comprehending distinctions in meaning conveyed by syntax. This precludes the human brain possessing an organ devoted exclusively to language, such as the Faculty of Language proposed by Chomsky (1972, 2012). In essence like Fodor's (1983) modular model, a restatement of archaic phrenological theories (Spurzheim, 1815). The subcortical basal ganglia can be traced back to early anurans. Although our knowledge of the neural circuits of the human brain is at a very early stage and incomplete, the findings of independent studies over the past 40 years, discussed here, have identified circuits linking the basal ganglia with various areas of prefrontal cortex, posterior cortical regions and other subcortical structures. These circuits are active in linguistic tasks such as lexical access, comprehending distinctions in meaning conferred by syntax and the range of higher cognitive tasks involving executive control and play a critical role in conferring cognitive flexibility. The cingulate cortex which appeared in Therapsids, transitional mammal-like reptiles who lived in age of the dinosaurs, most likely enhanced mother-infant interaction, contributing to success in the Darwinian (1859) "Struggle for Existence" - the survival of progeny. They continue to fill that role in present-day mammals as well as being involved in controlling laryngeal phonation during speech and directing attention (Newman & MacLean, 1983; Cummings, 1993". The cerebellum and hippocampus, archaic structures, play role in cognition. Natural selection acting on genetic and epigenetic events in the last 500,000 years enhanced human cognitive and linguistic capabilities. It is clear that human language did not suddenly come into being 70,000 to 100,000 years as Noam Chomsky (Bolhuis et al., 2014) and others claim. The archeological record and analyses of fossil and genetic evidence shows that Neanderthals, who diverged from the human line at least 500,000 years ago possessed some form of language. Nor did the human population suddenly acquire the capability to relate two seemingly unrelated concepts by means of associative learning 100,000 years ago, re-coined "Merge" by Chomsky and his adherents, Merge supposedly is the key to syntax but associative learning, one of the cognitive processes by which children learn languages and the myriad complexities of their cultures, is a capability present in dogs and virtually all animals.

  14. Mental time travel and the shaping of the human mind

    PubMed Central

    Suddendorf, Thomas; Addis, Donna Rose; Corballis, Michael C.

    2009-01-01

    Episodic memory, enabling conscious recollection of past episodes, can be distinguished from semantic memory, which stores enduring facts about the world. Episodic memory shares a core neural network with the simulation of future episodes, enabling mental time travel into both the past and the future. The notion that there might be something distinctly human about mental time travel has provoked ingenious attempts to demonstrate episodic memory or future simulation in non-human animals, but we argue that they have not yet established a capacity comparable to the human faculty. The evolution of the capacity to simulate possible future events, based on episodic memory, enhanced fitness by enabling action in preparation of different possible scenarios that increased present or future survival and reproduction chances. Human language may have evolved in the first instance for the sharing of past and planned future events, and, indeed, fictional ones, further enhancing fitness in social settings. PMID:19528013

  15. Formation of the Foreign Language Discursive Competence of Pedagogical Faculties Students in the Process of Intercultural Dialogue

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ponomarenko, Larisa N.; Zlobina, Irina S.; Galitskih, Elena O.; Rublyova, Olga S.

    2017-01-01

    The article presents the main ideas of concept of foreign language discursive competence formation among university and secondary school students by means of intercultural dialogue. The concept includes fundamental principles, activity stages of educational process, and criteria of foreign language discursive competence formation. Innovation of…

  16. Fusing Language Learning and Leadership Development: Initial Approaches and Strategies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Long, Sheri Spaine; LeLoup, Jean W.; Derby, LeAnn; Reyes, Ramsamooj J.

    2014-01-01

    During a recent visiting professorship at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA), it became clear that language faculty--both military and civilians--stated that they included leadership while teaching foreign languages and cultures. However, many of the same educators could not explicitly spell out their approach to doing so. This gap…

  17. The Integration of Technology and Language Instruction to Enhance EFL Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Marek, Michael W.

    2014-01-01

    There is much research in the scholarly literature about using technology to support language learning, and particularly English as a Foreign Language, but the technology is rarely integrated into the curriculum, largely because the research is the product of the pressure on faculty to publish. The author explores curriculum integration, based on…

  18. Critical Thinking Dispositions of Pre-Service Turkish Language Teachers and Primary Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Maltepe, Sadet

    2016-01-01

    The present study aimed to determine critical thinking dispositions of pre-service Turkish language and primary teachers in terms of several variables by employing descriptive survey design. The study group consisted of 215 senior students attending Turkish Language Teaching and Primary Education Departments of Necatibey Faculty of Education at…

  19. Intercultural Sensitivity Levels of Turkish Pre-Service Foreign Language Teachers: Examples from Education Faculties of Two Universities in Turkey

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yetis, Veda Aslim; Kurt, Çigdem

    2016-01-01

    The aim of this study is to determine whether intercultural sensitivity levels vary among foreign language teacher candidates in terms of variables such as target language, year of study (grade), and gender in both intra and inters programs. Research sample consists of 1,049 Turkish freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior foreign language teacher…

  20. Crossing the Threshold of Rocket Mail: E-Mail Use by U.S. Humanities Faculty.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bridges, Anne E.; Clement, Russell T.

    1997-01-01

    Discusses the use of e-mail by humanities faculty based on an e-mail survey of faculty at Brigham Young University (Utah) and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Results indicate that humanities faculty are significantly heavier e-mail users than previously reported. (LRW)

  1. Culture Shock: Teaching Writing within Interdisciplinary Contact Zones

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brammer, Charlotte; Amare, Nicole; Campbell, Kim Sydow

    2008-01-01

    To help writing faculty learn the language of discourse communities across campus, we conducted faculty interviews as a first attempt to describe knowledge about disciplinary cultures, specifically with regard to writing. Based on the data received from the interviews about disciplinary definitions and characteristics of good writing and how…

  2. How Engineering Standards Are Interpreted and Translated for Middle School

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Judson, Eugene; Ernzen, John; Krause, Stephen; Middleton, James A.; Culbertson, Robert J.

    2016-01-01

    In this exploratory study we examined the alignment of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) middle school engineering design standards with lesson ideas from middle school teachers, science education faculty, and engineering faculty (4-6 members per group). Respondents were prompted to provide plain language interpretations of two middle…

  3. The Undergraduate Spanish Major Curriculum: Realities and Faculty Perceptions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hertel, Tammy Jandrey; Dings, Abby

    2014-01-01

    This article presents the quantitative and qualitative results of a nationwide survey of Spanish department faculty on the components of their undergraduate Spanish major curriculum and their perceptions of these components, as well as their perceptions of recent Modern Language Association (MLA) reports (2007, 2009) and the reports'…

  4. Project LEAP: Learning English-for-Academic-Purposes. Training Manual Year Three.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Snow, Marguerite Ann, Ed.

    Project LEAP (Learning English-for-Academic-Purposes) is a three-year faculty development and supplemental instruction partnership to improve the academic literacy skills of native-born, immigrant, and international language minority students. This manual is the third set of faculty development materials produced by the project, presenting…

  5. Segregating the core computational faculty of human language from working memory

    PubMed Central

    Makuuchi, Michiru; Bahlmann, Jörg; Anwander, Alfred; Friederici, Angela D.

    2009-01-01

    In contrast to simple structures in animal vocal behavior, hierarchical structures such as center-embedded sentences manifest the core computational faculty of human language. Previous artificial grammar learning studies found that the left pars opercularis (LPO) subserves the processing of hierarchical structures. However, it is not clear whether this area is activated by the structural complexity per se or by the increased memory load entailed in processing hierarchical structures. To dissociate the effect of structural complexity from the effect of memory cost, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study of German sentence processing with a 2-way factorial design tapping structural complexity (with/without hierarchical structure, i.e., center-embedding of clauses) and working memory load (long/short distance between syntactically dependent elements; i.e., subject nouns and their respective verbs). Functional imaging data revealed that the processes for structure and memory operate separately but co-operatively in the left inferior frontal gyrus; activities in the LPO increased as a function of structural complexity, whereas activities in the left inferior frontal sulcus (LIFS) were modulated by the distance over which the syntactic information had to be transferred. Diffusion tensor imaging showed that these 2 regions were interconnected through white matter fibers. Moreover, functional coupling between the 2 regions was found to increase during the processing of complex, hierarchically structured sentences. These results suggest a neuroanatomical segregation of syntax-related aspects represented in the LPO from memory-related aspects reflected in the LIFS, which are, however, highly interconnected functionally and anatomically. PMID:19416819

  6. Linear grammar as a possible stepping-stone in the evolution of language.

    PubMed

    Jackendoff, Ray; Wittenberg, Eva

    2017-02-01

    We suggest that one way to approach the evolution of language is through reverse engineering: asking what components of the language faculty could have been useful in the absence of the full complement of components. We explore the possibilities offered by linear grammar, a form of language that lacks syntax and morphology altogether, and that structures its utterances through a direct mapping between semantics and phonology. A language with a linear grammar would have no syntactic categories or syntactic phrases, and therefore no syntactic recursion. It would also have no functional categories such as tense, agreement, and case inflection, and no derivational morphology. Such a language would still be capable of conveying certain semantic relations through word order-for instance by stipulating that agents should precede patients. However, many other semantic relations would have to be based on pragmatics and discourse context. We find evidence of linear grammar in a wide range of linguistic phenomena: pidgins, stages of late second language acquisition, home signs, village sign languages, language comprehension (even in fully syntactic languages), aphasia, and specific language impairment. We also find a full-blown language, Riau Indonesian, whose grammar is arguably close to a pure linear grammar. In addition, when subjects are asked to convey information through nonlinguistic gesture, their gestures make use of semantically based principles of linear ordering. Finally, some pockets of English grammar, notably compounds, can be characterized in terms of linear grammar. We conclude that linear grammar is a plausible evolutionary precursor of modern fully syntactic grammar, one that is still active in the human mind.

  7. Second-Language Composition Instruction, Computers and First-Language Pedagogy: A Descriptive Survey.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Harvey, T. Edward

    1987-01-01

    A national survey of full-time instructional faculty (N=208) at universities, 2-year colleges, and high schools regarding attitudes toward using computers in second-language composition instruction revealed a predomination of Apple and IBM-PC computers used, a major frustration in lack of foreign character support, and mixed opinions about real…

  8. Does Topic Familiarity Affect Assessed Difficulty and Actual Performance on Reading Comprehension Tests in LSP?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Peretz, Arna S.; Shoham, Miriam

    A study investigated the hypothesis that topic familiarity and assessed difficulty of a second language text correlated positively with performance on reading comprehension tests in languages for special purposes (LSP). Subjects were 177 advanced students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) at Ben Gurion University (Israel). Faculty from the…

  9. Research in the Doctoral Program in Second Language Acquisition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    De Costa, Peter I.; Bernales, Carolina; Merrill, Margaret

    2011-01-01

    Faculty and graduate students in the Doctoral Program in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison engage in a broad spectrum of research. From Professor Sally Magnan's research on study abroad and Professor Monika Chavez's work in foreign language policy through Professor Richard Young's examination of…

  10. Classrooms in the Wild: Learning Language and Life Skills in the KUIS Outdoor Sports Circle.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wurr, Adrian

    The role of outdoor education activities in the Kanda University English language institute is described. The outdoor program was developed to unite faculty and students interested in recreational activities and provide an opportunity to explore common interests in nature, sports, and language learning. The activities develop self-esteem,…

  11. Internet Technology-Based Projects in Learning and Teaching English as a Foreign Language at Yakutsk State University

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zamorshchikova, Lena; Egorova, Olga; Popova, Marina

    2011-01-01

    This paper discusses recent uses of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in fostering Internet-based projects for learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) at the Faculty of Foreign Languages in Yakutsk State University, Russia. It covers the authors' experiences integrating distance education and creating educational resources…

  12. Vocabulary Teaching in Foreign Language via Audiovisual Method Technique of Listening and Following Writing Scripts

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bozavli, Ebubekir

    2017-01-01

    The objective is hereby study is to compare the effects of conventional and audiovisual methods on learning efficiency and success of retention with regard to vocabulary teaching in foreign language. Research sample consists of 21 undergraduate and 7 graduate students studying at Department of French Language Teaching, Kazim Karabekir Faculty of…

  13. Modern Languages and Distance Education: Thirteen Days in the Cloud

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dona, Elfe; Stover, Sheri; Broughton, Nancy

    2014-01-01

    This research study documents the journey of two modern language faculty (Spanish and German) from their original beliefs that teaching foreign languages can only be conducted in a face-to-face format to their eventual development of an online class using Web 2.0 technologies to encourage their students' active skills of reading and speaking in…

  14. Faculty development for the evaluation system: a dual agenda

    PubMed Central

    Oller, Kellee L; Mai, Cuc T; Ledford, Robert J; O’Brien, Kevin E

    2017-01-01

    Faculty development for the evaluation process serves two distinct goals. The first goal is to improve the quality of the evaluations submitted by the faculty. Providing an accurate assessment of a learner’s capabilities is a skill and, similar to other skills, can be developed with training. Frame-of-reference training serves to calibrate the faculty’s standard of performance and build a uniform language of the evaluation. Second, areas for faculty professional growth can be identified from data generated from learners’ evaluations of the faculty using narrative comments, item-level comparison reports, and comparative rank list information. This paper presents an innovative model, grounded in institutional experience and review of the literature, to provide feedback to faculty evaluators, thereby improving the reliability of the evaluation process, and motivating the professional growth of faculty as educators. PMID:28331382

  15. An assessment of faculty and dental student decision-making in ethics.

    PubMed

    Behar-Horenstein, Linda S; Catalanotto, Frank A; Garvan, Cynthia Wilson; Hudson-Vassell, Charisse

    2014-01-01

    This study reports and compares dental student and dental faculty scores to national norms for the Defining Issues Test 2, a measure of ethical decision-making competency. The findings showed that dental students and faculty tend to make decisions that promote self-interest, paralleling the ethical orientation of business professionals. Differences associated with gender, language, and norms from previous studies were observed. The findings underscore the importance of raising dental faculty and student awareness of their own ethical decision-making approaches. More importantly, the findings highlight the need to ensure that dental faculty have both the knowledge and skills to train dental students about the central role that ethical decision-making must play in patient care.

  16. Faculty support for ESL nursing students: action plan for success.

    PubMed

    Hansen, Eileen; Beaver, Shirley

    2012-01-01

    Nursing students whose first language is not English have lower retention and NCLEX-RN pass rates. This review identifies four areas of difficulty and recommends strategies that can be employed by supportive faculty to assist these students and help ensure a more diverse nursing workforce to care for our increasingly diverse patient population.

  17. Literature Review of Faculty-Perceived Usefulness of Instructional Technology in Classroom Dynamics

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Salas, Alexandra

    2016-01-01

    This article provides a literature review of the research concerning the role of faculty perspectives about instructional technology. Learning management systems, massive open online courses (MOOCs), cloud-based multimedia applications, and mobile apps represent the tools and the language of academia in the 21st century. Research examined…

  18. Faculty Perceptions about Virtual World Technology: Affordances and Barriers to Adoption

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wood, Linda W.

    2011-01-01

    Providing instruction using different instructional delivery methods allows the learner to absorb content in a way that fits the individual learner. Today's students have grown up immersed in digital technology. However, many higher education faculty are still not speaking the same digital language as their students. The issue may be that the…

  19. The Relative Influence of Faculty Mobility on NJ HSPA Scores

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Graziano, Dana

    2013-01-01

    In this study, the researcher examined the strength and direction of relationships between New Jersey School Report Card Variables, in particular Faculty Mobility, and 2009-2010 New Jersey High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) Math and Language Arts Literacy test scores. Variables found to have an influence on standardized test scores in the…

  20. The Acquisition of Relative Clauses: How Do Second Language Learners of Arabic Do It?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Algady, Dola

    2013-01-01

    The new developments in syntactic theory under Minimalism reconsiders the relation between the language faculty and general cognitive systems whereby language acquisition is accomplished by the interaction of Chomsky (2005)'s three factors: (F1) a minimally specified UG (Genetic endowment); (F2) Primary Linguistic Data (PLD), i.e., input; and (F3)…

  1. Influence of School Certificate English Achievement and Faculty on Course of Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Uguma, Vincent U.; Timothy, Alexander E.

    2015-01-01

    The study was to find out the influence of both students' achievement in the West African Examination Council's Senior School Certificate English Language examination and the faculty of study by the students in the university on their performances in Use of English and in specific courses of study. 964 undergraduate students of Cross River…

  2. Guiding Students to Answers: Query Recommendation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yilmazel, Ozgur

    2011-01-01

    This paper reports on a guided navigation system built on the textbook search engine developed at Anadolu University to support distance education students. The search engine uses Turkish Language specific language processing modules to enable searches over course material presented in Open Education Faculty textbooks. We implemented a guided…

  3. Beyond Articulation: A Report on Collaborative Professional Development.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Malinowski, Arlene

    The importance of faculty development programs involving coordination between institutions of higher education and elementary and secondary schools is discussed. High school language teachers often express an interest in tailoring their courses to foreign language study at the college level. Such coordination requires mutual understanding about…

  4. Teaching Philosophy Statements: In-Service ESL Teachers' Practices and Beliefs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Payant, Caroline

    2017-01-01

    In North American higher education settings, faculty are increasingly required to write teaching philosophy statements. In the field of English language teaching, there is a very narrow understanding of language teachers' practices of writing teaching philosophy statements and their potential benefits to individuals and to the professionalization…

  5. The Negotiated Curriculum as Praxis in the World of the Classroom.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Trousdale, Ann; Henkin, Roxanne

    A college professor (on the elementary language arts and children's literature faculty) and a doctoral candidate (also writing coordinator for an Illinois school district) team-taught a graduate language arts course at Northern Illinois University, implementing practices that reflected their pedagogical and political convictions. Both wanted the…

  6. Interactive Video Listening Comprehension in Foreign Language Instruction: Development and Evaluation.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fischer, Robert

    The report details development, at Southwest Texas State University and later at Pennsylvania State University, of a computer authoring system ("Libra") enabling foreign language faculty to develop multimedia lessons focusing on listening comprehension. Staff at Southwest Texas State University first developed a Macintosh version of the…

  7. Students Prenatally Exposed to Drugs and Alcohol: A Survey of School Personnel Preparation.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Watson, Silvana M. R.; Gable, Robert A.; Tonelson, Stephen W.

    2003-01-01

    Surveyed university faculty regarding the preparation of general educators, special educators, and speech language pathologists to work with students prenatally exposed to drugs and alcohol. Results confirmed that in general, teacher education and speech language pathology programs provide limited information on these students. There were…

  8. Academic Alliances: School/College Faculty Collaboratives.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Silber, Ellen; Moore, Terre

    1989-01-01

    Reports the results of a survey of high school and college foreign language teachers participating in 24 collaboratives around the country. Information about the effects of the alliances on the teachers' attitudes and instructional effectiveness are reported, and an update about current programs in academic alliances in foreign languages is…

  9. Career Development in Language Education Programs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shawer, Saad Fathy; Alkahtani, Saad Ali

    2013-01-01

    This study assesses the influence of a two-year language program evaluation on program directors and faculty career development. The study makes use of mixed-paradigms (positivism and qualitative interpretive), mixed-strategies (survey research and qualitative evaluation), one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and a post-hoc test of multiple…

  10. OER "Produsage" as a Model to Support Language Teaching and Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    MacKinnon, Teresa; Pasfield-Neofitou, Sarah

    2016-01-01

    Language education faculty face myriad challenges in finding teaching resources that are suitable, of high quality, and allow for the modifications needed to meet the requirements of their course contexts and their learners. The article elaborates the grassroots model of "produsage" (a portmanteau of "production" and…

  11. iPads in Medical Language Courses at the University of Helsinki

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wallinheimo, Kirsi; Pitkänen, Kari K.

    2016-01-01

    In recent years, the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Helsinki has systematically developed and synchronized its teaching technology, and new iPad-based tools have been an important part of this development. The aim has been to provide the students and teachers in the faculty with synchronized tools that can be used as a basis of a shared…

  12. What Impact Does a Change-Agent Have on Faculty Use of Technology?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stanley, Iain

    2015-01-01

    This study was undertaken to examine the influence that a set of Professional Development (PD) initiatives had on faculty use of Moodle, a well-known Course Management System. The context of the study was a private university in Japan that specializes in languages. Specifically, it aimed to identify the way in which the PD initiatives adhered to…

  13. Contrasting Views of Business Students' Writing Needs in an EFL Environment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bacha, Nahla Nola; Bahous, Rima

    2008-01-01

    This paper reports on a study of business student and faculty views at the Lebanese American University as to the students' language proficiency levels, writing in particular, and what the specific writing needs are in order for students to be effective in their course work. The role of the English and business faculty is also investigated.…

  14. Positioning Global Education for the 1990s: Higher Education Strategies. Remarks to the Sub-Plenary Session.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tonkin, Humphrey

    One of the obstacles to the internationalization of college curriculums is the nature of faculty training. In recent years there has been a decline in second language requirements for the doctoral degree, and, as a result, college faculties become increasingly anglophone in their research. But there is a considerable pool of international…

  15. Students Writing Emails to Faculty: An Examination of E-Politeness among Native and Non-Native Speakers of English

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Biesenbach-Lucas, Sigrun

    2007-01-01

    This study combines interlanguage pragmatics and speech act research with computer-mediated communication and examines how native and non-native speakers of English formulate low- and high-imposition requests to faculty. While some research claims that email, due to absence of non-verbal cues, encourages informal language, other research has…

  16. Leading a System-Wide Pedagogical Change: How a Faculty of Education Invests in Developing Communication Proficiencies?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Weinberger, Yehudith

    2018-01-01

    The article presents a system-wide change initiated in the faculty of education at a major teachers' college aimed at developing students' reading, and written and oral communication proficiencies, while focusing on clarity and coherence, and the use of rich, correct and precise language for purposes of studying, teaching and research. The…

  17. Simplicity and Specificity in Language: Domain-General Biases Have Domain-Specific Effects

    PubMed Central

    Culbertson, Jennifer; Kirby, Simon

    2016-01-01

    The extent to which the linguistic system—its architecture, the representations it operates on, the constraints it is subject to—is specific to language has broad implications for cognitive science and its relation to evolutionary biology. Importantly, a given property of the linguistic system can be “specific” to the domain of language in several ways. For example, if the property evolved by natural selection under the pressure of the linguistic function it serves then the property is domain-specific in the sense that its design is tailored for language. Equally though, if that property evolved to serve a different function or if that property is domain-general, it may nevertheless interact with the linguistic system in a way that is unique. This gives a second sense in which a property can be thought of as specific to language. An evolutionary approach to the language faculty might at first blush appear to favor domain-specificity in the first sense, with individual properties of the language faculty being specifically linguistic adaptations. However, we argue that interactions between learning, culture, and biological evolution mean any domain-specific adaptations that evolve will take the form of weak biases rather than hard constraints. Turning to the latter sense of domain-specificity, we highlight a very general bias, simplicity, which operates widely in cognition and yet interacts with linguistic representations in domain-specific ways. PMID:26793132

  18. Human Resources Management in Educational Faculties of State Universities in Turkey

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Öztürk, Sevim

    2016-01-01

    This study aims to evaluate the human resources management in the faculties of education of state universities in Turkey within the context of Human Resources Management Principles. The study population consisted of 40 academic members in the faculties of education of 20 different state universities and 10 academic unit administrators at different…

  19. Smart phone, smart science: how the use of smartphones can revolutionize research in cognitive science.

    PubMed

    Dufau, Stephane; Duñabeitia, Jon Andoni; Moret-Tatay, Carmen; McGonigal, Aileen; Peeters, David; Alario, F-Xavier; Balota, David A; Brysbaert, Marc; Carreiras, Manuel; Ferrand, Ludovic; Ktori, Maria; Perea, Manuel; Rastle, Kathy; Sasburg, Olivier; Yap, Melvin J; Ziegler, Johannes C; Grainger, Jonathan

    2011-01-01

    Investigating human cognitive faculties such as language, attention, and memory most often relies on testing small and homogeneous groups of volunteers coming to research facilities where they are asked to participate in behavioral experiments. We show that this limitation and sampling bias can be overcome by using smartphone technology to collect data in cognitive science experiments from thousands of subjects from all over the world. This mass coordinated use of smartphones creates a novel and powerful scientific "instrument" that yields the data necessary to test universal theories of cognition. This increase in power represents a potential revolution in cognitive science.

  20. Triadic (ecological, neural, cognitive) niche construction: a scenario of human brain evolution extrapolating tool use and language from the control of reaching actions.

    PubMed

    Iriki, Atsushi; Taoka, Miki

    2012-01-12

    Hominin evolution has involved a continuous process of addition of new kinds of cognitive capacity, including those relating to manufacture and use of tools and to the establishment of linguistic faculties. The dramatic expansion of the brain that accompanied additions of new functional areas would have supported such continuous evolution. Extended brain functions would have driven rapid and drastic changes in the hominin ecological niche, which in turn demanded further brain resources to adapt to it. In this way, humans have constructed a novel niche in each of the ecological, cognitive and neural domains, whose interactions accelerated their individual evolution through a process of triadic niche construction. Human higher cognitive activity can therefore be viewed holistically as one component in a terrestrial ecosystem. The brain's functional characteristics seem to play a key role in this triadic interaction. We advance a speculative argument about the origins of its neurobiological mechanisms, as an extension (with wider scope) of the evolutionary principles of adaptive function in the animal nervous system. The brain mechanisms that subserve tool use may bridge the gap between gesture and language--the site of such integration seems to be the parietal and extending opercular cortices.

  1. Foreign Language Faculty's Appropriation of an Academic Publishing Policy at a US University

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fuentes, Ronald; Gómez Soler, Inmaculada

    2018-01-01

    As a result of internationalisation, many universities have developed policies that encourage publications in English. This study explores this issue by examining multilingual scholars' experiences of publishing policies in an Anglophone context and more specifically within the discipline of foreign languages--an inherently plurilingual discipline…

  2. Accidence and Acronyms: Deploying Electronic Assessment in Support of Classical Language Teaching in a University Context

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ashdowne, Richard

    2009-01-01

    This article describes the process of design and implementation of GALACTICA ("Greek And Latin Accidence Consolidation Training, Internet-Centred Assessment") in support of the University of Oxford's Classics Faculty language consolidation classes. The context and aims of the previous paper-based "assessment" system are…

  3. The Language of Teaching Mathematics: Implications for Training ITAs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Byrd, Patricia; Constantinides, Janet C.

    1992-01-01

    Because of national concern about the effect of having basic college mathematics courses taught by so many international teaching assistants whose English skills may be limited, this paper reports on the use of language in teaching by regular college faculty, rather than teaching assistants, at Georgia State University. (eight references)…

  4. Southern Illinois Working Papers in Linguistics and Language Teaching, Volume 1.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Young, Richard, Ed.

    Five original research papers by faculty of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Southern Illinois at Carbondale are presented. The titles and authors are as follows: "Measuring the Instructional Sensitivity of ESL (English as a Second Language) Reading Comprehension Items" (Sheila R. Brutten, John T. Mouw, and Kyle…

  5. Mentoring Foreign Language Teaching Assistants, Lecturers, and Adjunct Faculty. Issues in Language Program Direction: A Series in Annual Volumes.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rifkin, Benjamin, Ed.

    This book includes the following chapters: "Historical, Theoretical, and Pragmatic Perspectives on Mentoring" (H. Jay Siskin, with Jim Davis); "New Paradigms, Old Practices: Disciplinary Tensions in TA Training" (Elizabeth Guthrie); "The Professional Development of Highly Experienced and Less Experienced Teachers: Meeting Diverse Needs" (Elizabeth…

  6. The Problematic Context of Mentoring: Evidence from an English Language Teaching Department at a Turkish University

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yavuz, Aysun

    2011-01-01

    "Mentoring" has become the central issue of the "restructuring programme" in education faculties in Turkey since 1998. This study aims to explore the participants' perceptions and experiences about the concepts of "mentor" and "mentoring". A mentor and six English Language Teaching Department (ELT) students,…

  7. 75 FR 60740 - Office of Postsecondary Education; Overview Information; Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-10-01

    ... (78) languages selected from the U.S. Department of Education's list of Less Commonly Taught Languages... research and focus on one of the following fields or topics: Environmental Science, Economics, Public Health, Education, or Political Science. Program Authority: 22 U.S.C. 2452(b)(6). Applicable Regulations...

  8. Network Update: WWW Page Writing and Design Helpers.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Higgins, Chris

    1997-01-01

    Lists and describes the sites available on the World Wide Web used for Web-based projects for language education. Notes that the number and style of such sites has risen dramatically, reflecting a growing interest among language teaching faculty. Points out that both a program's content and its presentation affect its feasibility as an educational…

  9. American Sign Language-English Interpreting Program Faculty: Characteristics, Tenure Perceptions, and Productivity

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hale, Kimberly J.

    2012-01-01

    American Sign Language (ASL)-English interpreting education, which began as a community apprenticeship and vetting process, has within the last several decades moved into higher education. Most recently, the number of baccalaureate-granting ASL-English interpreting programs have continued to increase while the number of associate's degree…

  10. Coping with English as Language of Instruction in Higher Education in Rwanda

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kagwesage, Anne Marie

    2013-01-01

    The present study examines strategies that multilingual university students in Rwanda use in order to successfully deal with complex academic material offered through the medium of English, a foreign language. The reported strategies emerged from group work discussions and interviews with students in the faculty of Economics and Management at a…

  11. Teaching Culture and Identifying Language Interference Errors through Films

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Argynbayev, Arman; Kabylbekova, Dana; Yaylaci, Yusuf

    2014-01-01

    This study reflects intermediate level learners' opinion about employing films in the EFL classroom for teaching culture and avoiding negative language transfer. A total of 63 participants, aged 21-23, took part in the experiment in the Faculty of Philology at Suleyman Demirel University in Almaty, Kazakhstan. During the experiment the subjects…

  12. Discipline-Specific Reading Expectation and Challenges for ESL Learners in US Universities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hartshorn, K. James; Evans, Norman W.; Egbert, Jesse; Johnson, Amy

    2017-01-01

    English-medium institutions of higher education host increasing numbers of English-as-a second-language (ESL) learners in the US. English language skill is vital to their progress. Previous research examined reading challenges and expectations faculty have for their first-year students within five popular majors for international students…

  13. Thinking, Language and Learning in Initial Teacher Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Taylor, Nick

    2016-01-01

    Initial teacher education (ITE) serves as a bridge between prospective teachers exiting the school system to enrol in teacher education faculties, on the one hand and newly qualified teachers (NQTs) who are embarking on a career in schooling on the other. The present paper describes the language and thinking skills student teachers bring to their…

  14. The Invisible Hand: The Power of Language in Creating Welcoming Postsecondary Learning Experiences

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Clinton, Lisa C.; Higbee, Jeanne L.

    2011-01-01

    This manuscript discusses from the joint perspectives of an undergraduate student and a faculty member the often invisible role that language can play in providing postsecondary learning experiences that can either include or exclude students on the basis of social identity. The authors discuss ignorance, uncertainty, and political correctness as…

  15. An Evaluation of Literature Component of Hacettepe University English Language Teaching Department

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Arikan, Arda

    2005-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to collect and interpret views of prospective teachers on literature courses offered in Hacettepe University, Faculty of Education, English Language Teaching (EL T) department. Hence, this research encompasses experiential knowledge of the participants and the results aim to inform the curriculum development practice…

  16. An Evaluation of Literature Curriculum in H.U. English Language Teaching Department

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Arikan, Arda

    2005-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to collect and interpret views of prospective teachers on literature courses offered in Hacettepe University, Faculty of Education, English Language Teaching (ELT) department. Hence, such research encompasses experiential knowledge of the participants and the results aim to inform the curriculum development practice…

  17. Experimental Study of Gender Effects on Language Use in College Students' Email to Faculty

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Thomas-Tate, Shurita; Daugherty, Timothy K.; Bartkoski, Timothy J.

    2017-01-01

    Anecdotal reports have arisen regarding gender bias in electronic communication on college campuses. In an experiment designed to test language use in different gender contexts, participants were asked to compose an email to a professor whose gender had been experimentally manipulated. Female students, but not male students, displayed lower…

  18. BAAL/CUP Seminars 2013/Text Trajectories--Developing Dynamic Approaches to Textual Analysis

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Maybin, Janet; Lillis, Theresa

    2015-01-01

    This seminar took place on 19 April, 2013 at the Centre for Language and Communication, Faculty of Language and Education Studies, The Open University. The seminar was coordinated by Janet Maybin and Theresa Lillis and there were 28 participants, including four postgraduate students, from universities in Britain, Belgium and South Africa.

  19. NEW GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGES, WHY THEY ARE NEEDED.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    TURNER, DAYMOND E., JR.

    ADDITIONAL DOCTORAL PROGRAMS ARE NEEDED IN MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGES. CURRENT PRODUCTION OF GRADUATE DEGREES APPEARS SCARCELY ADEQUATE FOR REPLACING FACULTY WHO ANNUALLY LEAVE TEACHING BECAUSE OF DEATH, ILLNESS, RETIREMENT, OR CHANGE OF VOCATION. THE SUPPLY WILL HARDLY KEEP PACE WITH THE DEMAND CREATED BY THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NEW INSTITUTIONS OF…

  20. North-South Collaborations: Learning from a Decade of Intercultural Experiences for Teachers and Faculty in One Mexican and US University Partnership

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Thomas-Ruzic, Maria; Prudencio, Fatima Encinas

    2015-01-01

    This paper focuses on an ongoing international collaboration between two large public universities, one in the US and one in Mexico, through projects in program development, faculty exchange, graduate student/teacher field experiences, student mentoring and joint research in the area of a foreign/second language teaching and teacher development.…

  1. Identifying and Responding to Learner Needs at the Medical Faculty: The Use of Audio-Visual Specialised Fiction (FASP)

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Franklin-Landi, Rebecca

    2017-01-01

    Since the development of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) in the 1980's, learner needs have been central to English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teaching and learning, including in the field of English for Medical Purposes (EMP). This paper reports on two studies, conducted at Nice University Medical Faculty between October 2015 and March 2016,…

  2. Supporting College and University Students with Invisible Disabilities: A Guide for Faculty and Staff Working with Students with Autism, AD/HD, Language Processing Disorders, Anxiety, and Mental Illness

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Oslund, Christy

    2013-01-01

    With increasing numbers of students with invisible disabilities attending college and university, faculty and staff find themselves faced with new challenges. This practical handbook provides lecturers, tutors, disability services, and administrative staff with an overview of the invisible disabilities they may encounter, dispelling common myths…

  3. Using NANDA, NIC, and NOC in an undergraduate nursing practicum.

    PubMed

    Smith, Kelly J; Craft-Rosenberg, Martha

    2010-01-01

    Although use of diagnoses originally developed by NANDA (now known as NANDA-I), NIC, and NOC in education and practice is increasing, many faculty members have not been educated in their use and may be reluctant to teach these languages. This article provides guidance on the use of NANDA-I, NIC, and NOC in clinical education. This guidance will facilitate both faculty and student learning.

  4. Graduate Students' Perceptions of the Impact of the Alternative National English Course on the Improvement of Their English Language Learning and Their Learning Challenges at the University of Jordan

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Alkhawaldeh, Ahmad Mokbel

    2017-01-01

    This qualitative study addressed the English language learning needs and challenges expressed by a sample of 22 postgraduate students from diversified faculties in the University of Jordan. These students were required to take the Alternative National English course. They wrote a self-report reflecting on their English language learning needs and…

  5. English Language Acculturation, Perception of Faculty Caring, Networks, Campus Racial Climate, and Race as Predictors of Student Success among Mexican-American and Non-Hispanic White Baccalaureate Nursing Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Torregosa, Marivic B.

    2011-01-01

    There have been increased efforts to recruit and retain underrepresented groups (Asians, African-Americans, and Hispanics) and students who speak English as a second language (ESL) into nursing. However their success rates lag behind those students who speak English as a first language. As little is known about the influence of non-cognitive…

  6. A grounded theory of faculty's use of humanization to create online course climate.

    PubMed

    Cox-Davenport, Rebecca A

    2014-03-01

    The purpose of this research was to study the way faculty establish course social presence in an online course. The community of inquiry model by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer distinguished the area of social presence as an important component of online learning, and this study sought to understand how faculty perceive and create social presence in their online classroom. By employing a grounded theory approach, a substantive theory was developed to explain the way in which faculty create and maintain an online course climate. The sample consisted of 10 nursing faculty teaching various master's in nursing courses. Through a rigorous qualitative process using nursing faculty interviews and online course analysis, humanization was found to be the core category in setting online course climate. Faculty's efforts to humanize the climate lead each member of the community to view the other members as real, thereby enabling the establishment of online social presence.

  7. Basic math in monkeys and college students.

    PubMed

    Cantlon, Jessica F; Brannon, Elizabeth M

    2007-12-01

    Adult humans possess a sophisticated repertoire of mathematical faculties. Many of these capacities are rooted in symbolic language and are therefore unlikely to be shared with nonhuman animals. However, a subset of these skills is shared with other animals, and this set is considered a cognitive vestige of our common evolutionary history. Current evidence indicates that humans and nonhuman animals share a core set of abilities for representing and comparing approximate numerosities nonverbally; however, it remains unclear whether nonhuman animals can perform approximate mental arithmetic. Here we show that monkeys can mentally add the numerical values of two sets of objects and choose a visual array that roughly corresponds to the arithmetic sum of these two sets. Furthermore, monkeys' performance during these calculations adheres to the same pattern as humans tested on the same nonverbal addition task. Our data demonstrate that nonverbal arithmetic is not unique to humans but is instead part of an evolutionarily primitive system for mathematical thinking shared by monkeys.

  8. Strengthening Humanities at Genesee Community College: An NEH-Funded Faculty Development Grant.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Williams, Margaret D.

    Genesee Community College (GCC), in New York, received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to conduct a faculty seminar focusing on the role and historical context of the computer as a medium for writing. Twenty GCC faculty from the humanities, as well as from career/technical programs, participated in the seminar in the summer of 1992.…

  9. Two distinct forms of functional lateralization in the human brain

    PubMed Central

    Gotts, Stephen J.; Jo, Hang Joon; Wallace, Gregory L.; Saad, Ziad S.; Cox, Robert W.; Martin, Alex

    2013-01-01

    The hemispheric lateralization of certain faculties in the human brain has long been held to be beneficial for functioning. However, quantitative relationships between the degree of lateralization in particular brain regions and the level of functioning have yet to be established. Here we demonstrate that two distinct forms of functional lateralization are present in the left vs. the right cerebral hemisphere, with the left hemisphere showing a preference to interact more exclusively with itself, particularly for cortical regions involved in language and fine motor coordination. In contrast, right-hemisphere cortical regions involved in visuospatial and attentional processing interact in a more integrative fashion with both hemispheres. The degree of lateralization present in these distinct systems selectively predicted behavioral measures of verbal and visuospatial ability, providing direct evidence that lateralization is associated with enhanced cognitive ability. PMID:23959883

  10. Saying vs. Doing: A Contradiction in the Professional Development of Foreign Language Teaching Assistants

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Angus, Katie

    2016-01-01

    Despite the sizeable portion of foreign language (FL) instruction provided by graduate students now as teaching assistants (TAs) and in the future as faculty, few studies have considered TAs' perspectives on their own professional development. To inform the professional development of FL graduate students as teachers, the present study updated and…

  11. The Italian Job: Reforming a Beginners' Italian Curriculum at University Level

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Absalom, Matthew

    2012-01-01

    In 2008, the Faculty of Arts at The University of Melbourne embarked upon a major overhaul of curriculum in nine languages: Arabic, Chinese, Indonesian and Japanese in the Asia Institute; and French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish in the School of Languages and Linguistics. This article details the changes to the beginners' Italian…

  12. Using Interdisciplinary Integration in Teaching English of Oil and Gas Students in Russia

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ibatova, Aygul Z.; Ilin, Aleksandr G.; Ippolitova, Natalia V.; Stavruk, Marina A.; Ivanova, Natalia L.

    2016-01-01

    The article discusses the problem of foreign language training of students of oil and gas faculty with the use of interdisciplinary integration as an effective teaching method. A brief review of the application of this method in the foreign language classes with students at the Federal State Institution of Higher Education of Tyumen Industrial…

  13. Evolutionary Developmental Linguistics: Naturalization of the Faculty of Language

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Locke, John L.

    2009-01-01

    Since language is a biological trait, it is necessary to investigate its evolution, development, and functions, along with the mechanisms that have been set aside, and are now recruited, for its acquisition and use. It is argued here that progress toward each of these goals can be facilitated by new programs of research, carried out within a new…

  14. Establish Best Practices for Supervision of Instructors

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2012-09-01

    633. Christen, W. L., & Murphy, T. J. (1987). Inservice training and peer evaluation: An integrated program for faculty development. NASSP...describes the current state of instructional supervision in Special Operations Forces (SOF) initial acquisition training (IAT) language schools. This...leadership and Command Language Program Managers (CLPMs) related to selection, training , and resourcing. Finally, specific recommendations are provided for

  15. Embedding Language Support in Developmental Mathematics Lessons: Exploring the Value of Design as Professional Development for Community College Mathematics Instructors

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gomez, Kimberley; Gomez, Louis M.; Rodela, Katherine C.; Horton, Emily S.; Cunningham, Jahneille; Ambrocio, Rocio

    2015-01-01

    Three community college faculty members used improvement science techniques to design, develop, and refine contextualized developmental mathematics lessons, where language and literacy pedagogy and related supports figured prominently in these instructional materials. This article reports on the role that their design experiences played in…

  16. Internet Use with Learning Aim: Views of German Language Pre-Service Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yucel, Mukadder Seyhan

    2011-01-01

    The aim of this study is to indicate the views of teacher candidates of German Language Department at Education Faculty, Trakya University about the use of internet with the aim of learning. This study was designed as phenomenology which is one of the qualitative research methods. The study data were obtained via semi-constructed interview…

  17. Translation, Adaptation and Invariance Testing of the Teaching Perspectives Inventory: Comparing Faculty of Malaysia and the United States

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Misieng, Jecky

    2013-01-01

    As a result of growing attention in cross-cultural research, existing measurement instruments developed in one language are being translated and adapted for use in other languages and cultural contexts. Producing invariant measurement instruments that assess educational and psychological constructs provide a way of testing the cross-cultural…

  18. Language Camps: Thirteen Years of Minor Miracles.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Peterson, Jean

    A language camp program that began with a small group of 10- to 12-year-olds whose faculty parents wanted them to retain the German learned on sabbaticals abroad has developed into a program of annual week-long day and resident camps for 150 children, aged 9 to 14 years, learning German, French, Spanish, and Norwegian. The camp was originally…

  19. Podcasting to Provide Teaching and Learning Support for an Undergraduate Module on English Language and Communication

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Edirisingha, Palitha; Rizzi, Chiara; Nie, Ming; Rothwell, Libby

    2007-01-01

    This paper reports findings from research into the benefits of integrating podcasts into a first year undergraduate module on English Language and Communication at Kingston University. As part of a Faculty teaching and learning support scheme for first year undergraduates, six podcasts were developed to improve students' learning and study skills…

  20. The Effectiveness of Reflection in Developing Students' Oracy in English at the Faculties of Tourism and Hospitality

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zayed, Jihan El-Sayed Ahmed

    2009-01-01

    This study aimed at determining the effectiveness of using reflection in developing Tourism and Hospitality students' oracy in English. Two modes of reflection (i.e., "active reflection" and "proactive reflection") were used for developing two aspects of oracy: language awareness of some features of spoken language (i.e.,…

  1. A Comparative Study of Language Reforms in China and Japan. Skidmore College Faculty Research Lecture 1969.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chu, Yu-Kuang; Nishimoto, Koji

    1969-01-01

    Chinese and Japanese, although they are unrelated languages, nevertheless have similar writing systems, since Japanese writing employs a mixed system of Chinese characters and phonetic script. Because Chinese characters are difficult to learn, however, reform movements to simplify the writing system to make the task of learning easier for a…

  2. Language and Cultural Challenges Facing Business Faculty in the Ever-Expanding Global Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Vogel, Glen M.

    2013-01-01

    More than 690,000 foreign students studied in the United States during the 2009-10 academic year. As non-native English-speaking students continue to pour into American educational institutions, one question many educators have is: are these international students adequately prepared for the language and cultural demands they will face when they…

  3. Edmodo Use to Develop Saudi EFL Students' Self-Directed Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Khodary, Manal Mohamed

    2017-01-01

    This study aimed at exploring the effect of Edmodo use on developing Saudi English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students' Self-Directed Learning (SDL). It employed a quasi-experimental design that included a one group design. The participants (n = 45) were all fifth level students at Languages and Translation Department, Arar Faculty of Education…

  4. Language and Recursion

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lowenthal, Francis

    2010-11-01

    This paper examines whether the recursive structure imbedded in some exercises used in the Non Verbal Communication Device (NVCD) approach is actually the factor that enables this approach to favor language acquisition and reacquisition in the case of children with cerebral lesions. For that a definition of the principle of recursion as it is used by logicians is presented. The two opposing approaches to the problem of language development are explained. For many authors such as Chomsky [1] the faculty of language is innate. This is known as the Standard Theory; the other researchers in this field, e.g. Bates and Elman [2], claim that language is entirely constructed by the young child: they thus speak of Language Acquisition. It is also shown that in both cases, a version of the principle of recursion is relevant for human language. The NVCD approach is defined and the results obtained in the domain of language while using this approach are presented: young subjects using this approach acquire a richer language structure or re-acquire such a structure in the case of cerebral lesions. Finally it is shown that exercises used in this framework imply the manipulation of recursive structures leading to regular grammars. It is thus hypothesized that language development could be favored using recursive structures with the young child. It could also be the case that the NVCD like exercises used with children lead to the elaboration of a regular language, as defined by Chomsky [3], which could be sufficient for language development but would not require full recursion. This double claim could reconcile Chomsky's approach with psychological observations made by adherents of the Language Acquisition approach, if it is confirmed by researches combining the use of NVCDs, psychometric methods and the use of Neural Networks. This paper thus suggests that a research group oriented towards this problematic should be organized.

  5. Salary-Trend Studies of Faculty for the Years 1990-91 and 1993-94 in the Following Academic Disciplines/Major Fields: Accounting...Foreign Languages and Literature.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Howe, Richard D.; And Others

    This volume provides comparative data for faculty salaries in public and private colleges and universities, based on two surveys of institutions conducted in 1990-91 and 1993-94 respectively. Data in this report are from the 306 institutions that provided data for both years. Data are provided for the following disciplines: Accounting;…

  6. English Language as a Requirement Course for Information Students--A Content Analysis of English Syllabus in the Faculty of Arabic and Islamic Studies/Nile Valley University

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ahmed, Mustafa Shazali Mustafa

    2009-01-01

    The study investigated the importance of two elements in the process of syllabus design (ends / means specifications, program implementation) in the faculty of Islamic and Arabic studies, Nile Valley University, designed in 1995. Results indicate that the ends/means specifications stage is used to present the general aims and the objective of each…

  7. L'Entrainement a la Comprehension Ecrite des Etudiants Etrangers de la Faculte des Sciences (Reading Comprehension Training for Foreign Students in the Science Faculty). Melanges Pedagogiques, 1977.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Duda, R.; Regent, O.

    The ability of foreign students to read non-scientific material efficiently is important for rapid social and cultural integration. This report describes the reading comprehension section of a French language course aimed at foreign students at the Nancy Science Faculty. Exercises are presented which cover morpho-syntactic, communicative and…

  8. Hedging to save face: a linguistic analysis of written comments on in-training evaluation reports.

    PubMed

    Ginsburg, Shiphra; van der Vleuten, Cees; Eva, Kevin W; Lingard, Lorelei

    2016-03-01

    Written comments on residents' evaluations can be useful, yet the literature suggests that the language used by assessors is often vague and indirect. The branch of linguistics called pragmatics argues that much of our day to day language is not meant to be interpreted literally. Within pragmatics, the theory of 'politeness' suggests that non-literal language and other strategies are employed in order to 'save face'. We conducted a rigorous, in-depth analysis of a set of written in-training evaluation report (ITER) comments using Brown and Levinson's influential theory of 'politeness' to shed light on the phenomenon of vague language use in assessment. We coded text from 637 comment boxes from first year residents in internal medicine at one institution according to politeness theory. Non-literal language use was common and 'hedging', a key politeness strategy, was pervasive in comments about both high and low rated residents, suggesting that faculty may be working to 'save face' for themselves and their residents. Hedging and other politeness strategies are considered essential to smooth social functioning; their prevalence in our ITERs may reflect the difficult social context in which written assessments occur. This research raises questions regarding the 'optimal' construction of written comments by faculty.

  9. [Catalogue of learning goals for pregraduate education in geriatric medicine. A recommendation of the German Geriatric Society (DGG), the German Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics (DGGG), the Austrian Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology (ÖGGG) and the Swiss Society of Geriatric Medicine (SFGG) on the basis of recommendations of the European Union of Medical Specialists Geriatric Medicine Section (UEMS-GMS) 2013].

    PubMed

    Singler, K; Stuck, A E; Masud, T; Goeldlin, A; Roller, R E

    2014-11-01

    Sound knowledge in the care and management of geriatric patients is essential for doctors in almost all medical subspecialties. Therefore, it is important that pregraduate medical education adequately covers the field of geriatric medicine. However, in most medical faculties in Europe today, learning objectives in geriatric medicine are often substandard or not even explicitly addressed. As a first step to encourage undergraduate teaching in geriatric medicine, the European Union of Medical Specialists -Geriatric Medicine Section (UEMS-GMS) recently developed a catalogue of learning goals using a modified Delphi technique in order to encourage education in this field. This catalogue of learning objectives for geriatric medicine focuses on the minimum requirements with specific learning goals in knowledge, skills and attitudes that medical students should have acquired by the end of their studies.In order to ease the implementation of this new, competence-based curriculum among the medical faculties in universities teaching in the German language, the authors translated the published English language curriculum into German and adapted it according to medical language and terms used at German-speaking medical faculties and universities of Austria, Germany and Switzerland. This article contains the final German translation of the curriculum. The Geriatric Medicine Societies of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland formally endorse the present curriculum and recommend that medical faculties adapt their curricula for undergraduate teaching based on this catalogue.

  10. International medical students – a survey of perceived challenges and established support services at medical faculties

    PubMed Central

    Huhn, D.; Junne, F.; Zipfel, S.; Duelli, R.; Resch, F.; Herzog, W.; Nikendei, C.

    2015-01-01

    Introduction: Medical students with a non-German background face several challenges during their studies. Besides support given by foreign student offices further specific projects for international students have been developed and are offered by medical faculties. However, so far, neither a systematic survey of the faculties’ perceived problems nor of the offered support exists. Method: All study deaneries of medical faculties in Germany were contacted between April and October 2013 and asked for their participation in a telephone interview. Interview partners were asked about 1.) The percentage of non-German students at the medical faculty; 2.) The perceived difficulties and problems of foreign students; 3.) The offers for non-German students; and 4.) The specification of further possibilities of support. Given information was noted, frequencies counted and results interpreted via frequency analysis. Results: Only 39% of the medical faculties could give detailed information about the percentage of non-German students. They reported an average share of 3.9% of students with an EU migration background and 4.9% with a non-EU background. Most frequently cited offers are student conducted tutorials, language courses and tandem-programs. The most frequently reported problem by far is the perceived lack of language skills of foreign students at the beginning of their studies. Suggested solutions are mainly the development of tutorials and the improvement of German medical terminology. Discussion: Offers of support provided by medical faculties for foreign students vary greatly in type and extent. Support offered is seen to be insufficient in coping with the needs of the international students in many cases. Hence, a better coverage of international students as well as further research efforts to the specific needs and the effectiveness of applied interventions seem to be essential. PMID:25699112

  11. On Cognition, Structured Sequence Processing, and Adaptive Dynamical Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Petersson, Karl Magnus

    2008-11-01

    Cognitive neuroscience approaches the brain as a cognitive system: a system that functionally is conceptualized in terms of information processing. We outline some aspects of this concept and consider a physical system to be an information processing device when a subclass of its physical states can be viewed as representational/cognitive and transitions between these can be conceptualized as a process operating on these states by implementing operations on the corresponding representational structures. We identify a generic and fundamental problem in cognition: sequentially organized structured processing. Structured sequence processing provides the brain, in an essential sense, with its processing logic. In an approach addressing this problem, we illustrate how to integrate levels of analysis within a framework of adaptive dynamical systems. We note that the dynamical system framework lends itself to a description of asynchronous event-driven devices, which is likely to be important in cognition because the brain appears to be an asynchronous processing system. We use the human language faculty and natural language processing as a concrete example through out.

  12. The language machine: psycholinguistics in review.

    PubMed

    Altmann GTM

    2001-02-01

    Psycholinguistics is the empirical and theoretical study of the mental faculty that underpins our consummate linguistic agility. This review takes a broad look at how the field has developed, from the turn of the 20th century through to the turn of the 21st. Since the linguistic revolution of the mid-1960s, the field has broadened to encompass a wide range of topics and disciplines. A selection of these is reviewed here, starting with a brief overview of the origins of psycholinguistics. More detailed sections describe the language abilities of newborn infants; infants' later abilities as they acquire their first words and develop their first grammatical skills; the representation and access of words (both spoken and written) in the mental lexicon; the representations and processes implicated in sentence processing and discourse comprehension; and finally, the manner in which, as we speak, we produce words and sentences. Psycholinguistics is as much about the study of the human mind itself as it is about the study of that mind's ability to communicate and comprehend.

  13. The language of business: a key nurse executive competency.

    PubMed

    Thomas, Joan; Collins, Allison; Collins, Denton; Herrin, Donna; Dafferner, Deborah; Gabriel, Julie

    2008-01-01

    The ability to interpret fiscal data pertaining to patient outcomes, human resources, customer satisfaction, and financial positions is a vital evidenced-based nurse executive competency. The ability of nurse leaders to influence and contribute in health system executive decision making requires fluency in accounting, "the language of business." After examining challenges faced by nurse executives, faculty at the Loewenberg School of Nursing at the University of Memphis integrated intensive accounting education into a new executive MSN program. Woven throughout the management accounting course is the concept that accounting data must be relevant and accurate for use by organization decision makers. Evidence-based decision making is emphasized when teaching planning and control activities. In addition, fluency in accounting is enhanced which leads to greater skill in patient and nursing advocacy. As competency in management accounting increases through the semester, executive MSN students are encouraged to apply cost accounting course content to their practice settings and to analyze how planning or control activities improve quality outcomes.

  14. WIKI-Enhanced Scaffolding to Encourage Student Participation in a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lin, Chun-Yi

    2014-01-01

    Given the fact that more and more universities stress on using English as medium to teach students with diverse backgrounds, the content and language integrated learning approach (CLIL) is now frequently introduced to faculty to support effective instruction and learning. Inspired by a CLIL workshop I attended, in which the instructor offered an…

  15. Supporting English-Language Learners and Struggling Readers in Content Literacy with the "Partner Reading and Content, Too" Routine

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ogle, Donna; Correa-Kovtun, Amy

    2010-01-01

    Increasing numbers of English-language learners and the challenge of supporting their learning in social studies and science brought together a group of urban literacy coaches and university faculty. This article describes the development and refinement of a partner reading routine, Partner Reading and Content, Too (PRC2). Partners with similar…

  16. Ditch the Dictionary: Finding a Vocabulary Comfort Zone. Vocabulary, Reading and Multiple Intelligences in an English as a Second Language Classroom.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Safi, Anna Marie

    This paper describes "Ditch the Dictionary," a college faculty development workshop at Johnson and Wales University (Rhode Island) that applies the theory of multiple intelligences to vocabulary development and reading instruction in the English-as-a-Second-Language classroom. It was found that the institution's international and…

  17. Instant Reality--The Use (and Misuse) of Photographic Slides in the Classroom.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Underhill, Nic

    The paper suggests ways in which the teacher of English as a second language may use slides to stimulate students by teaching through, and not just about, the slides. Slides are useful when used as a tool to uncover the students' creative and imaginative faculties, which may fail to be discovered through conventional language teaching. The use of…

  18. Salary-Trend Studies of Faculty for the Years 1991-92 and 1994-95 in the Following Academic Disciplines/Major Fields: Accounting...Foreign Languages and Literatures.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Howe, Richard D.; And Others

    This volume provides comparative trend data for faculty salaries in public and private colleges and universities, based on two surveys, one of public and the other of private senior colleges and universities. For those institutions (223 public and 345 private) participating in both 1991-92 and 1994-95 surveys, trend data are provided. For each…

  19. Benefits and challenges of international clinical education from a US-based physiotherapist faculty perspective.

    PubMed

    Pechak, Celia; Black, Jill D

    2013-12-01

    The influence of internationalization on physiotherapist education in at least North American-based programmes has become more apparent. Faculty and students have been involved in various international activities. One category of activities includes international clinical education (ICE), where students earn clinical education credit for their learning activities at international sites. Although this educational strategy appears to be increasingly used in at least the United States and Canada, the related literature is limited in scope. The purpose of this portion of the present study was to investigate the benefits and challenges of ICE for US-based students, US-based physiotherapy programmes and international partners from the perspective of US-based faculty sending students for clinical education internationally. Content analysis was used for this qualitative study. Fifteen US-based faculty members who had experience in sending physiotherapist students for ICE were recruited. The primary researcher conducted semi-structured phone interviews, averaging approximately 60 minutes in length. The primary and secondary researchers completed data analysis using NVivo 8 software (QSR International Inc., Cambridge, MA). Benefits of ICE to the students included exposure to alternate health systems, broadening of student perspectives and clinical competence. Challenges consisted of funding and possible language barrier. Increased visibility, expanded global perspective and faculty collaborations were benefits to the programme. Ensuring a quality learning experience was the greatest programme challenge. Benefits to the international site included education and faculty collaborations/exchanges; challenges were language, student clinical preparation and unfamiliarity with the student evaluation tool. Because the sample was limited to 15 US-based faculty members, the results may not be relevant to all programmes inside or outside of the United States. Additionally, the study lacked perspectives from the students or international sites. The present study is an early step in the important examination of the impact of this emerging educational trend on physiotherapy education and practice. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  20. Formal linguistics as a cue to demographic history.

    PubMed

    Longobardi, Giuseppe; Ceolin, Andrea; Ecay, Aaron; Ghirotto, Silvia; Guardiano, Cristina; Irimia, Monica-Alexandrina; Michelioudakis, Dimitris; Radkevich, Nina; Pettener, Davide; Luiselli, Donata; Barbujani, Guido

    2016-06-20

    Beyond its theoretical success, the development of molecular genetics has brought about the possibility of extraordinary progress in the study of classification and in the inference of the evolutionary history of many species and populations. A major step forward was represented by the availability of extremely large sets of molecular data suited to quantitative and computational treatments. In this paper, we argue that even in cognitive sciences, purely theoretical progress in a discipline such as linguistics may have analogous impact. Thus, exactly on the model of molecular biology, we propose to unify two traditionally unrelated lines of linguistic investigation: 1) the formal study of syntactic variation (parameter theory) in the biolinguistic program; 2) the reconstruction of relatedness among languages (phylogenetic taxonomy). The results of our linguistic analysis have thus been plotted against data from population genetics and the correlations have turned out to be largely significant: given a non-trivial set of languages/populations, the description of their variation provided by the comparison of systematic parametric analysis and molecular anthropology informatively recapitulates their history and relationships. As a result, we can claim that the reality of some parametric model of the language faculty and language acquisition/transmission (more broadly of generative grammar) receives strong and original support from its historical heuristic power. Then, on these grounds, we can begin testing Darwin's prediction that, when properly generated, the trees of human populations and of their languages should eventually turn out to be significantly parallel.

  1. The cognitive niche: Coevolution of intelligence, sociality, and language

    PubMed Central

    Pinker, Steven

    2010-01-01

    Although Darwin insisted that human intelligence could be fully explained by the theory of evolution, the codiscoverer of natural selection, Alfred Russel Wallace, claimed that abstract intelligence was of no use to ancestral humans and could only be explained by intelligent design. Wallace's apparent paradox can be dissolved with two hypotheses about human cognition. One is that intelligence is an adaptation to a knowledge-using, socially interdependent lifestyle, the “cognitive niche.” This embraces the ability to overcome the evolutionary fixed defenses of plants and animals by applications of reasoning, including weapons, traps, coordinated driving of game, and detoxification of plants. Such reasoning exploits intuitive theories about different aspects of the world, such as objects, forces, paths, places, states, substances, and other people's beliefs and desires. The theory explains many zoologically unusual traits in Homo sapiens, including our complex toolkit, wide range of habitats and diets, extended childhoods and long lives, hypersociality, complex mating, division into cultures, and language (which multiplies the benefit of knowledge because know-how is useful not only for its practical benefits but as a trade good with others, enhancing the evolution of cooperation). The second hypothesis is that humans possess an ability of metaphorical abstraction, which allows them to coopt faculties that originally evolved for physical problem-solving and social coordination, apply them to abstract subject matter, and combine them productively. These abilities can help explain the emergence of abstract cognition without supernatural or exotic evolutionary forces and are in principle testable by analyses of statistical signs of selection in the human genome. PMID:20445094

  2. Ultrasonic vocalizations in mouse models for speech and socio-cognitive disorders: insights into the evolution of vocal communication

    PubMed Central

    Fischer, J; Hammerschmidt, K

    2011-01-01

    Comparative analyses used to reconstruct the evolution of traits associated with the human language faculty, including its socio-cognitive underpinnings, highlight the importance of evolutionary constraints limiting vocal learning in non-human primates. After a brief overview of this field of research and the neural basis of primate vocalizations, we review studies that have addressed the genetic basis of usage and structure of ultrasonic communication in mice, with a focus on the gene FOXP2 involved in specific language impairments and neuroligin genes (NL-3 and NL-4) involved in autism spectrum disorders. Knockout of FoxP2 leads to reduced vocal behavior and eventually premature death. Introducing the human variant of FoxP2 protein into mice, in contrast, results in shifts in frequency and modulation of pup ultrasonic vocalizations. Knockout of NL-3 and NL-4 in mice diminishes social behavior and vocalizations. Although such studies may provide insights into the molecular and neural basis of social and communicative behavior, the structure of mouse vocalizations is largely innate, limiting the suitability of the mouse model to study human speech, a learned mode of production. Although knockout or replacement of single genes has perceptible effects on behavior, these genes are part of larger networks whose functions remain poorly understood. In humans, for instance, deficiencies in NL-4 can lead to a broad spectrum of disorders, suggesting that further factors (experiential and/or genetic) contribute to the variation in clinical symptoms. The precise nature as well as the interaction of these factors is yet to be determined. PMID:20579107

  3. Colloquium paper: the cognitive niche: coevolution of intelligence, sociality, and language.

    PubMed

    Pinker, Steven

    2010-05-11

    Although Darwin insisted that human intelligence could be fully explained by the theory of evolution, the codiscoverer of natural selection, Alfred Russel Wallace, claimed that abstract intelligence was of no use to ancestral humans and could only be explained by intelligent design. Wallace's apparent paradox can be dissolved with two hypotheses about human cognition. One is that intelligence is an adaptation to a knowledge-using, socially interdependent lifestyle, the "cognitive niche." This embraces the ability to overcome the evolutionary fixed defenses of plants and animals by applications of reasoning, including weapons, traps, coordinated driving of game, and detoxification of plants. Such reasoning exploits intuitive theories about different aspects of the world, such as objects, forces, paths, places, states, substances, and other people's beliefs and desires. The theory explains many zoologically unusual traits in Homo sapiens, including our complex toolkit, wide range of habitats and diets, extended childhoods and long lives, hypersociality, complex mating, division into cultures, and language (which multiplies the benefit of knowledge because know-how is useful not only for its practical benefits but as a trade good with others, enhancing the evolution of cooperation). The second hypothesis is that humans possess an ability of metaphorical abstraction, which allows them to coopt faculties that originally evolved for physical problem-solving and social coordination, apply them to abstract subject matter, and combine them productively. These abilities can help explain the emergence of abstract cognition without supernatural or exotic evolutionary forces and are in principle testable by analyses of statistical signs of selection in the human genome.

  4. Faculty Conceptualizations and Approaches to Assessing Critical Thinking in the Humanities and Natural Sciences--A Grounded Theory Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nicholas, Mark C.

    2011-01-01

    Empirical research on how faculty across disciplines conceptualize or assess CT is scarce. This investigation focused on a group of 14 faculty drawn from multiple disciplines in the humanities and natural sciences. Using in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, assessment artifacts and qualitative coding strategies, this study examined how…

  5. The Effect of Using Some Professional Development Strategies on Improving the Teaching Performance of English Language Student Teacher at the Faculty of Education, Helwan University in the Light of Pre-Service Teacher Standards

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Halim, Safaa Mahmoud Abdel

    2008-01-01

    The main aim of this thesis was to determine the effect of using a training program based on three professional development strategies; namely: action learning, peer coaching and study groups, on improving teaching performance of Faculty of Education, Helwan University EFL student teachers in the light of standards for teachers of English at…

  6. An Analysis of Errors Committed by Saudi Non-English Major Students in the English Paragraph Writing: A Study of Comparisons

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nuruzzaman, Mohammed; Islam, A. B. M. Shafiqul; Shuchi, Israt Jahan

    2018-01-01

    The present study investigates the writing errors of ninety Saudi non-English major undergraduate students of different proficiency levels from three faculties, who studied English as a foundation course at the English Language Center in the College of Languages &Translation at King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia in the academic year 2016-17.…

  7. Factors Impeding the Learning of a Second Language in Spanish School System: Valladolid University Sample

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kocaman, Orhan

    2017-01-01

    The aim of this study is to determine the factors which harden learning English as a foreign language in the classes of the Faculty of Education in the University of Valladolid, Spain. As it is unquestionable today, English plays a significant role in the field of education as a Lingua Franca. Yet, learners of English experience various kinds of…

  8. The "Globularization Hypothesis" of the Language-ready Brain as a Developmental Frame for Prosodic Bootstrapping Theories of Language Acquisition.

    PubMed

    Irurtzun, Aritz

    2015-01-01

    In recent research (Boeckx and Benítez-Burraco, 2014a,b) have advanced the hypothesis that our species-specific language-ready brain should be understood as the outcome of developmental changes that occurred in our species after the split from Neanderthals-Denisovans, which resulted in a more globular braincase configuration in comparison to our closest relatives, who had elongated endocasts. According to these authors, the development of a globular brain is an essential ingredient for the language faculty and in particular, it is the centrality occupied by the thalamus in a globular brain that allows its modulatory or regulatory role, essential for syntactico-semantic computations. Their hypothesis is that the syntactico-semantic capacities arise in humans as a consequence of a process of globularization, which significantly takes place postnatally (cf. Neubauer et al., 2010). In this paper, I show that Boeckx and Benítez-Burraco's hypothesis makes an interesting developmental prediction regarding the path of language acquisition: it teases apart the onset of phonological acquisition and the onset of syntactic acquisition (the latter starting significantly later, after globularization). I argue that this hypothesis provides a developmental rationale for the prosodic bootstrapping hypothesis of language acquisition (cf. i.a. Gleitman and Wanner, 1982; Mehler et al., 1988, et seq.; Gervain and Werker, 2013), which claim that prosodic cues are employed for syntactic parsing. The literature converges in the observation that a large amount of such prosodic cues (in particular, rhythmic cues) are already acquired before the completion of the globularization phase, which paves the way for the premises of the prosodic bootstrapping hypothesis, allowing babies to have a rich knowledge of the prosody of their target language before they can start parsing the primary linguistic data syntactically.

  9. Psychological quality of life and its association with academic employability skills among newly-registered students from three European faculties

    PubMed Central

    2011-01-01

    Background In accord with new European university reforms initiated by the Bologna Process, our objectives were to assess psychological quality of life (QoL) and to analyse its associations with academic employability skills (AES) among students from the Faculty of Language, Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education, Walferdange Luxembourg (F1, mostly vocational/applied courses); the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Liege, Belgium (F2, mainly general courses); and the Faculty of Social Work, Iasi, Romania (F3, mainly vocational/professional courses). Method Students who redoubled or who had studied at other universities were excluded. 355 newly-registered first-year students (145 from F1, 125 from F2, and 85 from F3) were invited to complete an online questionnaire (in French, German, English or Romanian) covering socioeconomic data, the AES scale and the QoL-psychological, QoL-social relationships and QoL-environment subscales as measured with the World Health Organisation Quality of Life short-form (WHOQoL-BREF) questionnaire. Analyses included multiple regressions with interactions. Results QoL-psychological, QoL-social relationships and QoL-environment' scores were highest in F1 (Luxembourg), and the QoL-psychological score in F2 (Belgium) was the lower. AES score was higher in F1 than in F3 (Romania). A positive link was found between QoL-psychological and AES for F1 (correlation coefficient 0.29, p < 0.01) and F3 (correlation coefficient 0.30, p < 0.05), but the association was negative for F2 (correlation coefficient -0.25, p < 0.01). QoL-psychological correlated positively with QoL-social relationships (regression coefficient 0.31, p < 0.001) and QoL-environment (regression coefficient 0.35, p < 0.001). Conclusions Psychological quality of life is associated with acquisition of skills that increase employability from the faculties offering vocational/applied/professional courses in Luxembourg and Romania, but not their academically orientated Belgian counterparts. In the context of developing a European Higher Educational Area, these measurements are major indicators that can be used as a guide to promoting programs geared towards counseling, improvement of the social environment, and services to assist with university work and facilitate achievement of future professional projects. PMID:21501507

  10. Psychological quality of life and its association with academic employability skills among newly-registered students from three European faculties.

    PubMed

    Baumann, Michèle; Ionescu, Ion; Chau, Nearkasen

    2011-04-18

    In accord with new European university reforms initiated by the Bologna Process, our objectives were to assess psychological quality of life (QoL) and to analyse its associations with academic employability skills (AES) among students from the Faculty of Language, Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education, Walferdange Luxembourg (F1, mostly vocational/applied courses); the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Liege, Belgium (F2, mainly general courses); and the Faculty of Social Work, Iasi, Romania (F3, mainly vocational/professional courses). Students who redoubled or who had studied at other universities were excluded. 355 newly-registered first-year students (145 from F1, 125 from F2, and 85 from F3) were invited to complete an online questionnaire (in French, German, English or Romanian) covering socioeconomic data, the AES scale and the QoL-psychological, QoL-social relationships and QoL-environment subscales as measured with the World Health Organisation Quality of Life short-form (WHOQoL-BREF) questionnaire. Analyses included multiple regressions with interactions. QoL-psychological, QoL-social relationships and QoL-environment' scores were highest in F1 (Luxembourg), and the QoL-psychological score in F2 (Belgium) was the lower. AES score was higher in F1 than in F3 (Romania). A positive link was found between QoL-psychological and AES for F1 (correlation coefficient 0.29, p<0.01) and F3 (correlation coefficient 0.30, p<0.05), but the association was negative for F2 (correlation coefficient -0.25, p<0.01). QoL-psychological correlated positively with QoL-social relationships (regression coefficient 0.31, p<0.001) and QoL-environment (regression coefficient 0.35, p<0.001). Psychological quality of life is associated with acquisition of skills that increase employability from the faculties offering vocational/applied/professional courses in Luxembourg and Romania, but not their academically orientated Belgian counterparts. In the context of developing a European Higher Educational Area, these measurements are major indicators that can be used as a guide to promoting programs geared towards counseling, improvement of the social environment, and services to assist with university work and facilitate achievement of future professional projects.

  11. Effects of Leadership Behaviour on the Faculty Commitment of Humanities Departments in the University of Mysore, India: Regarding Factors of Age Group, Educational Qualifications and Gender

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tabbodi, Meimanat Lonita

    2009-01-01

    The present study examined the effect of leadership behaviour on the commitment of humanities departments in the University of Mysore, India. The data were collected from among faculties, including 93 participants. The instruments used were the "Leadership behaviour questionnaire" and the "Faculty commitment questionnaire".…

  12. Faculty Challenges across Rank in Liberal Arts Colleges: A Human Resources Perspective

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Baker, Vicki L.; Pifer, Meghan J.; Lunsford, Laura G.

    2016-01-01

    This article focuses on the challenges faced by faculty members in a consortium of 13 Liberal Arts Colleges (LACs). We present findings, by academic rank, from a mixed-methods study of faculty development needs and experiences within the consortium. Relying on human resource principles, we advocate a greater focus on the development of the person,…

  13. Developing Humanities Collections in the Digital Age: Exploring Humanities Faculty Engagement with Electronic and Print Resources

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kachaluba, Sarah Buck; Brady, Jessica Evans; Critten, Jessica

    2014-01-01

    This article is based on quantitative and qualitative research examining humanities scholars' understandings of the advantages and disadvantages of print versus electronic information resources. It explores how humanities' faculty members at Florida State University (FSU) use print and electronic resources, as well as how they perceive these…

  14. Integrated Modular Teaching of Human Biology for Primary Care Practitioners

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Glasgow, Michael S.

    1977-01-01

    Describes the use of integrated modular teaching of the human biology component of the Health Associate Program at Johns Hopkins University, where the goal is to develop an understanding of the sciences as applied to primary care. Discussion covers the module sequence, the human biology faculty, goals of the human biology faculty, laboratory…

  15. The 'big bang' theory of the origin of psychosis and the faculty of language.

    PubMed

    Crow, Timothy J

    2008-07-01

    To achieve a unified concept of the aetiology of psychosis. The nuclear symptoms of "schizophrenia" occur with approximately the same age- and sex-specific incidence in all human populations. No substantive environmental precipitant has been identified, and yet these "illnesses" are associated with deviations in brain structure that are uniform across populations, are established late in development and relate to the capacity for language. No genes have been identified by linkage or association strategies. It is postulated that the variation 1. relates precisely to the genetic mechanism that distinguishes the species Homo sapiens from its precursor. 2. constitutes a class of epigenetic diversity intrinsic to the genetic control of the species characteristic (the "specific mate recognition system" according to the theory of HEH Paterson). 3. reflects the role of the cerebral torque in the neuro-developmental re-organization that enabled the faculty of language. A genetic mechanism involving both the X and the Y chromosomes is suggested by 1) evidence for anomalies of asymmetry of brain structure and function in the sex chromosome aneuploidies, 2) a same sex concordance effect for handedness, 3) sex differences in lateralization, and verbal and spatial ability, and their inter-relationships. These three facts direct attention to the Xq21.3/Yp11.2 homology block that was established by an X to Y duplication 6 million years ago, ie at the time of origin of the hominid lineage. Within this block a gene pair (Protocadherin11X and Y) expressed as two cell surface adhesion molecules at axo-dendritic synapses has been subject to change (16 amino-acid substitutions in the Y, and critically 5 in the X sequence) in the hominid lineage. The X to Y duplication and its subsequent modification (4 deletions and a paracentric inversion) on the Y may have played a central role in hominid speciation with the most recent change (at around 160,000 years) representing the transition to language and modern Homo sapiens (the 'big bang'). The expression of genes within the homologous region is influenced by the extent to which the X and Y chromosomes pair in male meiosis (referred to as MSUC "meiotic suppression of unpaired chromosomes"). This mechanism generates epigenetic diversity relating to the species capacity for language; it is proposed as the basis of the genetic predisposition to psychosis. Language and psychosis have a common origin in the genetic event (the 'big bang') that defined the species.

  16. 2010 ESMD Faculty Fellowship Project

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Carmen, Christina L.; Morris, Tommy; Schmidt, Peter; van Susante, Paul; Zalewski, Janusz; Murphy, Gloria

    2010-01-01

    This slide presentation reviews is composed of 6 individual sections. The first is a introductory section that explains the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) Faculty Fellowship Project, the purpose of which is to prepare selected university faculty to work with senior design students to complete projects that have potential to contribute to NASA objectives. The following university presentations represent the chosen projects: (1) the use of Exploration Toolset for the Optimization of Launch and Space Systems (X-TOOLSS) to optimize the Lunar Wormbot design; (2) development of Hardware Definition Language (HDL) realization of ITU G.729 for FGPA; (3) cryogenic fluid and electrical quick connect system and a lunar regolith design; (4) Lunar Landing Pad development; and (5) Prognostics for complex systems.

  17. Cultural competence education in university rehabilitation programs.

    PubMed

    Matteliano, Mary A; Stone, John H

    2014-01-01

    The Center of International Rehabilitation Research, Information, and Exchange (CIRRIE) has prepared curriculum guides for rehabilitation professionals in occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech language pathology, and rehabilitation counseling. The objective is to provide a resource to faculty who wish to include or strengthen cultural competency education in their program and courses. CIRRIE assessed students'cultural needs, and solicited assistance from experts in the field to assist with the development of the guides. After the guides were published CIRRIE conducted surveys to assess their usefulness. Survey responses were highest among occupational therapy faculty. Among faculty who responded, most intended to use the cultural competence activities, case studies, and resources that the guides offer throughout their curriculum.

  18. Teaching All Geoscience Students: Lessons Learned From Two-Year Colleges

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baer, Eric; Blodgett, Robert H.; Macdonald, R. Heather

    2013-11-01

    Geoscience faculty at 2-year colleges (2YCs) are at the forefront of efforts to improve student learning and success while at the same time broadening participation in the geosciences. Faculty of 2YCs instruct large numbers of students from underrepresented minority groups and many students who are the first in their families to pursue higher education. Geoscience classes at 2YCs also typically have large enrollments of nontraditional students, English language learners, and students with learning disabilities.

  19. Investigating the English Language Needs of the Female Students at the Faculty of Computing and Information Technology at King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fadel, Sahar; Rajab, Hussam

    2017-01-01

    In the field of computer science, specific English language skills are needed to facilitate the students' academic progress. Needs analysis is generally believed to be an important element in ESP/EAP context because it enables the practitioners and curriculum designers determine the learners' needs in a particular academic context. In this regard,…

  20. Developing the Evaluation Scale to Determine the Impact of Body Language in an Argument: Reliability & Validity Analysis

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Karadag, Engin; Caliskan, Nihat; Yesil, Rustu

    2008-01-01

    In this research, it is aimed to develop a scale to observe the body language which is used during an argument. A sample group of 266 teacher candidates study at the departments of Class, Turkish or Social Sciences at the Faculty of Education was used in this study. A logical and statistical approach was pursued during the development of scale. An…

  1. The need for an organized approach for Government Medical Insurance Programs in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

    PubMed

    Edlich, Richard F

    2005-01-01

    The Commonwealth of Virginia has a disorganized approach to enrolling their retired faculty in Medicare Supplement Insurance Programs. An organized approach to establishing Medicare Supplemental Insurance for retired University faculty should include the following administrative changes to correct this potential health-care crisis for retired state faculty members. First, the ombudsman for human resources for the state universities must receive educational programs that prepare the retired faculty members over the age of 65 to select the corporate insurance policy from Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield Insurance Company. Included in this educational program should be a review of the Advantage 65 Member Handbook. Second, they must point out to the faculty member that they are receiving a CORPORATE insurance policy rather than an individual insurance policy from Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield Insurance Company. They must provide the telephone numbers of the Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield offices in Roanoke, Virginia. Concomitantly, they must send the name and address of the faculty member to the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Human Resource Management. They should inform the faculty member that the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Human Resource Management will be sending them newsletters that outline any changes in the corporate insurance policy that they coordinate with the Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield Insurance Company. The Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Human Resource Management must take on some new responsibilities in their efforts to coordinate health-care coverage of the retired faculty over the age of 65. First, they must have a computer registry of all corporate health-care policies of the individual faculty members to ensure that newsletters are being sent to them. Ideally, this agency should have a computerized system that allows it to send out its newsletter update by email to those retired faculty members who have computers. They should urge the faculty members to initiate an automatic check payment withdrawal from their bank so that the premiums from their corporate insurance policy can be paid promptly to Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield Insurance Company. Whereas the universities and the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Human Resource Management are making these responsible changes, Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield Insurance Company must undertake innovative changes in their corporate health-care policy to assist the retired faculty member. For instance, they must list on the insurance card that the faculty member has a corporate policy. Like the United Health Insurance Company, it would be advisable to offer a 2-5% reduction in the cost of the corporate insurance policy if the faculty member begins an automatic premium payment agreement through their bank. This insurance discount would be an added incentive for the faculty member to do automatic payments through their bank.

  2. Cross-sectional online survey of research productivity in young Japanese nursing faculty.

    PubMed

    Oyama, Yumiko; Fukahori, Hiroki; Miyashita, Mitsunori; Narama, Miho; Kono, Ayumi; Atogami, Fumi; Kashiwagi, Masayo; Okaya, Keiko; Takamizawa, Emiko; Yoshizawa, Toyoko

    2015-07-01

    To investigate the factors affecting the research productivity of young nursing faculty in Japan. An online survey targeting young nursing scholars (aged ≤ 39 years) who were members of the Japan Academy of Nursing Science was conducted from October to November 2012. Of 1634 potential respondents, 648 completed the survey (39.7%), and 400 full-time faculty of a baccalaureate degree program were selected for the analysis. The numbers of English-language and Japanese publications in the past 3 years were regressed onto personal characteristics, such as academic degree and type of university. The mean numbers of publications in English and Japanese in the past 3 years were 0.41 and 1.63, respectively. Holding a doctoral degree was significantly related to a higher number of publications in English and Japanese (e(β) = 5.78 and e(β) = 1.89, respectively). Working at a national university (e(β) = 2.15), having a research assistant (e(β) = 2.05), and the ability to read research articles in English (e(β) = 2.27) were significantly related to more English-language publications. Having the confidence to conduct quantitative research (e(β) = 1.67) was related to a larger number of Japanese publications. The lack of mentoring (e(β) = 0.97) and university workload (e(β) = 0.96) were associated with a lesser number of Japanese publications. The research productivity of young nursing faculty appeared to be quite low. Strategies to enhance research productivity in young nursing faculty, such as encouraging the achievement of a doctoral degree or enrichment of research resources, should be undertaken. © 2014 The Authors. Japan Journal of Nursing Science © 2014 Japan Academy of Nursing Science.

  3. Second Thoughts on Educational Innovation and New Faculty

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ringwald, F. A.

    2003-05-01

    New Math. Teaching machines. Programmed instruction. Whole Language. Educational television. Self-esteem. Process writing. Writing about "feelings." We have seen many educational innovations in recent years. Now, it's Peer Instruction, also called Active Learning, also called Learner-Centered Teaching. Fine, I say: after all, what I do is active and learner-centered, too. But is the introduction to new techniques really what new faculty need? Wouldn't the effort be better spent helping them with making their teaching better, as opposed to merely innovative? There are many things they need to know that almost no one is telling them, the most important of which is that they are not alone when dealing with the special problems of today's students. New faculty also need to be active and productive researchers, who are increasingly expected to involve students in research. This talk will examine these and other issues for new faculty.

  4. 34 CFR 663.3 - Who is eligible to receive a fellowship under this program?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... (Continued) OFFICE OF POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FULBRIGHT-HAYS FACULTY RESEARCH ABROAD... education; (c) Has been engaged in teaching relevant to his or her foreign language or area studies...

  5. 34 CFR 663.3 - Who is eligible to receive a fellowship under this program?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... (Continued) OFFICE OF POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FULBRIGHT-HAYS FACULTY RESEARCH ABROAD... education; (c) Has been engaged in teaching relevant to his or her foreign language or area studies...

  6. 34 CFR 663.3 - Who is eligible to receive a fellowship under this program?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... (Continued) OFFICE OF POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FULBRIGHT-HAYS FACULTY RESEARCH ABROAD... education; (c) Has been engaged in teaching relevant to his or her foreign language or area studies...

  7. 34 CFR 663.3 - Who is eligible to receive a fellowship under this program?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... (Continued) OFFICE OF POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FULBRIGHT-HAYS FACULTY RESEARCH ABROAD... education; (c) Has been engaged in teaching relevant to his or her foreign language or area studies...

  8. 34 CFR 663.3 - Who is eligible to receive a fellowship under this program?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... (Continued) OFFICE OF POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FULBRIGHT-HAYS FACULTY RESEARCH ABROAD... education; (c) Has been engaged in teaching relevant to his or her foreign language or area studies...

  9. Development of E-learning prototype for MUET assessment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mit Anak Mawan, Amylia; Mohamed, Rozlini; Othman, Muhaini; Yusof, Munirah Mohd

    2017-08-01

    This paper aims to discuss the development of E-learning prototype for MUET assessment in Fakulti Sains Komputer dan Teknologi Maklumat (FSKTM), Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) namely, MUET Online System. The system is considered as a learning centre to study MUET examination that follows the MUET syllabus. The system will be used to assist students in making preparation before sitting for MUET examination. Before student can gain access to the system, students need to sign up and pay some fees before they are enrolled into virtual MUET class. The class will be guided by the English language lecturer from Faculty of Science, Technology and Human Development (FSTPI), UTHM as teacher. The system provides learning modules, quiz and test section. At the end of learning session students’ performance are assessed through quizzes and test measure the level of student understands. The teacher will evaluate the student’s mark and provide advices to the student. Therefore, the MUET Online System will be able to improve student knowledge in English language and subsequently help student to obtain the best result in MUET by providing more guided references and practices.

  10. Fostering Coherence in a University-Wide Humanities Program through a Comprehensive Faculty Development Project.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Moseley, Merritt; Obergfell, Sandra

    The goal of this year-long project was to foster coherence throughout the humanities program, an interdisciplinary, team-taught sequence of four required undergraduate courses. The humanities program has no faculty of its own, but draws instructors from existing departments throughout the university. Growth of the program has brought…

  11. Higher Education Department Chairs and Academic Human Resource Decision Making: Does Unionization Matter?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dzwik, Leigh Settlemoir

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to assess faculty unionization's impact on academic human resource decision making for department chairs. The academic human resource decisions included in the study were: academic hiring; re-employment, promotion and tenure; other faculty evaluation decisions; and discipline and discharge. The first purpose of this…

  12. Factors that Predict Full-Time Community College Faculty Engagement in Online Instruction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Akroyd, Duane; Patton, Bess; Bracken, Susan

    2013-01-01

    This study is a secondary quantitative analysis of the 2004 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF) data. It examines the ability of human capital, intrinsic rewards, extrinsic rewards, and gender/race demographics to predict full-time community college faculty teaching on-line courses. Findings indicate that those faculty with higher…

  13. Cerebral localization, then and now.

    PubMed

    Marshall, John C; Fink, Gereon R

    2003-11-01

    We review some of the progress made in understanding the nature of functional specialization in the human brain, beginning with the anatomical claim that all mental faculties have their own distinct material substrate in different regions of the brain and the psychological claim that each mental faculty is characterized by the content domain with which it deals. This conceptual framework led behavioral neurologists to show how discrete brain lesions provoked different types of language, praxic, gnostic, spatial, and memory disorders. The simplest way of interpreting these anatomoclinical associations was to conjecture that the normal function (now impaired by brain damage) was localized within that lesioned region. It was also realized that cognitive impairments could arise from lesions that spared the functional centers themselves but disconnected them from other centers. Nonetheless, many neuroscientists remained skeptical of the entire paradigm. Accordingly, in the late 19th century functional localization began to be studied in the intact human brain by such techniques as measuring the temperature of different brain regions when different cognitive tasks were performed. During the 20th century these crude techniques gave way to positron emission tomography, functional magnetic resonance imaging, and magnetoencephalography. The relatively precise spatial and temporal resolution of modern methods now raises a crucial question: Do the functional localizations obtained by the anatomoclinical method converge with those implied by the functional neuroimaging of cognition in healthy volunteers? We then conclude with some recent suggestions that functional specialization is not such a fixed property of brain regions as previously supposed.

  14. Developing a Theory-Based Simulation Educator Resource.

    PubMed

    Thomas, Christine M; Sievers, Lisa D; Kellgren, Molly; Manning, Sara J; Rojas, Deborah E; Gamblian, Vivian C

    2015-01-01

    The NLN Leadership Development Program for Simulation Educators 2014 faculty development group identified a lack of a common language/terminology to outline the progression of expertise of simulation educators. The group analyzed Benner's novice-to-expert model and applied its levels of experience to simulation educator growth. It established common operational categories of faculty development and used them to organize resources that support progression toward expertise. The resulting theory-based Simulator Educator Toolkit outlines levels of ability and provides quality resources to meet the diverse needs of simulation educators and team members.

  15. From Myth to Reality: Humanities Study at Prince George's Community College.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Engleberg, Isa N.

    In 1989, Prince George's Community College (PGCC) received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support a 4-week summer seminar in Greek mythology for humanities faculty. The seminar, entitled "The Nature and Function of Greek Mythology," provided enough financial compensation to free the faculty from summer school teaching,…

  16. Perspectives on the Present State and Future of Higher Education Faculty Development in Kazakhstan: Implications for National Human Resource Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Seitova, Dinara

    2016-01-01

    The article aims at examining the present state of higher education faculty development in Kazakhstan in the context of multidimensional nationwide development reforms and exploring implications for the National Human Resource Development of the country. For the purpose of this research, theoretical human resource development (HRD) and…

  17. The Faculty Identities of Community College Adjuncts Teaching in the Humanities: A Discourse Analysis Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Thirolf, Kathryn Q.

    2012-01-01

    Research has shown that forming a professional identity is central in the process of becoming an effective teacher (Alsup, 2006; Danielewicz, 2001). Yet, little is known about the faculty identity development of part-time faculty, who represent nearly 70% of all faculty at community colleges (AFT Higher Education, 2009). Addressing this critical…

  18. University of Akron: Training Speech-Language Pathology Specialists to Provide Quality Service to Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing--A Collaborative Preservice Program

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wray, Denise; Flexer, Carol

    2010-01-01

    A collaborative team of faculty from The University of Akron (UA) in Akron, Ohio, and Kent State University (KSU) in Kent, Ohio, were awarded a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education to develop a specialty area in the graduate speech-language pathology (SLP) programs of UA and KSU that would train a total of 32 SLP students (trainees)…

  19. Gradient language dominance affects talker learning.

    PubMed

    Bregman, Micah R; Creel, Sarah C

    2014-01-01

    Traditional conceptions of spoken language assume that speech recognition and talker identification are computed separately. Neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies imply some separation between the two faculties, but recent perceptual studies suggest better talker recognition in familiar languages than unfamiliar languages. A familiar-language benefit in talker recognition potentially implies strong ties between the two domains. However, little is known about the nature of this language familiarity effect. The current study investigated the relationship between speech and talker processing by assessing bilingual and monolingual listeners' ability to learn voices as a function of language familiarity and age of acquisition. Two effects emerged. First, bilinguals learned to recognize talkers in their first language (Korean) more rapidly than they learned to recognize talkers in their second language (English), while English-speaking participants showed the opposite pattern (learning English talkers faster than Korean talkers). Second, bilinguals' learning rate for talkers in their second language (English) correlated with age of English acquisition. Taken together, these results suggest that language background materially affects talker encoding, implying a tight relationship between speech and talker representations. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. Work, work environments and other factors influencing nurse faculty intention to remain employed: a cross-sectional study.

    PubMed

    Tourangeau, Ann; Saari, Margaret; Patterson, Erin; Ferron, Era Mae; Thomson, Heather; Widger, Kimberley; MacMillan, Kathleen

    2014-06-01

    Given the role nurse faculty have in educating nurses, little is known about what influences their intention to remain employed (ITR) in academic settings. Findings from a nurse faculty survey administered to test a conceptual model of factors hypothesized as influencing nurse faculty ITR are reported. A cross-sectional survey design was employed. We included colleges and universities in Ontario, Canada. The population of Ontario nurse faculty who reported being employed as nurse faculty with the College of Nurses of Ontario (Canada) was included. Of the 1328 nurse faculty who were surveyed, 650 participated. Participants completed a questionnaire with measures of work, work environment, job satisfaction, burnout and ITR. Regression analyses were conducted to test the model. Ten of 26 independent variables explained 25.4% of variance in nurse faculty ITR for five years. These variables included: proximity to retirement, quality of relationships with colleagues, being employed full time, having dependents, satisfaction with work-life balance, quality of education, satisfaction with job status, access to financial support for education from organization, access to required human resources and being unionized. Although not all influencing factors are modifiable, academic leadership should develop strategies that encourage nurse faculty ITR. Strategies that support collegial relationships among faculty, increase the number of full time positions, promote work-life balance, engage faculty in assessing and strengthening education quality, support faculty choice between full-time and part-time work, and ensure adequate human resources required to teach effectively will lead to heightened nurse faculty ITR. © 2013.

  1. A Humanities and Medicine Program for Faculty.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Loftus, Loretta S.; And Others

    1991-01-01

    The da Vinci Society provides a format for integration of the humanities, arts, medical education, and clinical practice. The critical discussion group, whose meetings' atmosphere is informal and collegial, includes basic science faculty, academic clinicians, private practice physicians, allied health personnel, and occasional visiting artists.…

  2. Geographical education in Russia: state-of-the-art and new perspectives

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chalov, Sergey R.

    2010-05-01

    Up-today education systems of different countries face new perspectives in globalizing World. The Russian higher education framework was basically incompatible with the process of making academic degree standards and quality assurance standards more comparable throughout the World (so called Bologna process for Europe). So did Earth Sciences education framework. Today the key question in the further development of Earth sciences in Russia is the interaction with European education system. At the crossroads it is challenging to analyze the history and state-of-the-art. We considered the question on the example of one of the largest centers of the Earth Sciences education in Russia - Faculty of Geography of Lomonosov Moscow State University, which is moreover regarded to be one of the largest scientific and educational centers of geography in the World. There are 1200 students and 180 PhD students studying on the Faculty. The Faculty consists of 15 departments, 8 research laboratories and 4 field stations, where 850 employees work. Tuition of geography was established at Lomonosov Moscow State University since the day of its foundation. The significance of geographical studies at the University, which originally comprised the Faculty of Philosophy, the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Medicine, was already mentioned in the draft plan of its establishment (1755), which said that «anyone wishing to attend professors' lectures at the University has to learn foreign languages and first scientific basis beforehand". For this purpose two «gymnasiums» consisting of four schools were es-tablished at the University. Geography was included into the curriculum of the «first scientific basis school» and the «school of the distinguished European languages» - German and French. Today Geography in Russia is regarded to be one of the base sciences that are devoted to the problem of society and environment and their interactions. Geography was gone far from the descriptive field of science and in recent years combined key aspects of Earth Sciences. A new structure of geographical science and education has developed under the influence of modern trends in Geosciences. There are fifteen specialized departments on the Faculty of Geography of Lomonosov Moscow State University. The structure of the Faculty of Geography comprises 3 main profiles: the Environmental Geography, Human Geography and Hydrometeorology. Research and education of the Faculty of Geography of Lomonosov Moscow State University is fundamental and application-oriented in nature. To find solutions for society's present and future demands is the main task of the research and education which is trend to become research-oriented. Eight multidisciplinary primary research laboratories contribute to the research-oriented education. Modern global processes and terms such as sustainability, assessing risk and reducing disaster in environmental hazards, global and regional changes of environment and climate posed new perspectives in the geographical education. Integrative trends were in progress and that could be characterized by the following: - Development of new integrative branch of geography (so called "geoecology") as a response to increasing anthropogenic impact on environment; - Development of supplementary education (GIS, habitation ecology, landscape design etc); - Interdisciplinary features of such branches as environmental impact assessment and audit; - Scientific basis of sustainable development and nature management. Both with organizational issues (i.e. perfection of student practices, field studies and modernization of field stations; creation of training courses for foreign students; strengthening special training programmes in schools and development of distance learning) this integrative trends determine further development of the Geographical education in Russia. All of them greatly depend on the integration processes between Russia and Europe. Firm place of the Geography in the European Earth Sciences system provides both demand for the society and key role in future of science.

  3. Ambiguity Aversion in Rhesus Macaques

    PubMed Central

    Hayden, Benjamin Y.; Heilbronner, Sarah R.; Platt, Michael L.

    2010-01-01

    People generally prefer risky options, which have fully specified outcome probabilities, to ambiguous options, which have unspecified probabilities. This preference, formalized in economics, is strong enough that people will reliably prefer a risky option to an ambiguous option with a greater expected value. Explanations for ambiguity aversion often invoke uniquely human faculties like language, self-justification, or a desire to avoid public embarrassment. Challenging these ideas, here we demonstrate that a preference for unambiguous options is shared with rhesus macaques. We trained four monkeys to choose between pairs of options that both offered explicitly cued probabilities of large and small juice outcomes. We then introduced occasional trials where one of the options was obscured and examined their resulting preferences; we ran humans in a parallel experiment on a nearly identical task. We found that monkeys reliably preferred risky options to ambiguous ones, even when this bias was costly, closely matching the behavior of humans in the analogous task. Notably, ambiguity aversion varied parametrically with the extent of ambiguity. As expected, ambiguity aversion gradually declined as monkeys learned the underlying probability distribution of rewards. These data indicate that ambiguity aversion reflects fundamental cognitive biases shared with other animals rather than uniquely human factors guiding decisions. PMID:20922060

  4. Human-like, population-level specialization in the manufacture of pandanus tools by New Caledonian crows Corvus moneduloides.

    PubMed Central

    Hunt, G R

    2000-01-01

    The main way of gaining insight into the behaviour and neurological faculties of our early ancestors is to study artefactual evidence for the making and use of tools, but this places severe constraints on what knowledge can be obtained. New Caledonian crows, however, offer a potential analogous model system for learning about these difficult-to-establish aspects of prehistoric humans. I found new evidence of human-like specialization in crows' manufacture of hook tools from pandanus leaves: functional lateralization or 'handedness' and the shaping of these tools to a rule system. These population-level features are unprecedented in the tool behaviour of free-living non-humans and provide the first demonstration that a population bias for handedness in tool-making and the shaping of tools to rule systems are not concomitant with symbolic thought and language. It is unknown how crows obtain their tool behaviour. Nevertheless, at the least they can be studied in order to learn about the neuropsychology associated with early specialized and/or advanced population features in tool-making such as hook use, handedness and the shaping of tools to rule systems. PMID:10722223

  5. Human Capital or Cultural Taxation: What Accounts for Differences in Tenure and Promotion of Racialized and Female Faculty?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wijesingha, Rochelle; Ramos, Howard

    2017-01-01

    Achieving tenure and promotion are significant milestones in the career of a university faculty member. However, research indicates that racialized and female faculty do not achieve tenure and promotion at the same rate as their non-racialized and male counterparts. Using new survey data on faculty in eight Canadian universities, this article…

  6. Brain structures in the sciences and humanities.

    PubMed

    Takeuchi, Hikaru; Taki, Yasuyuki; Sekiguchi, Atsushi; Nouchi, Rui; Kotozaki, Yuka; Nakagawa, Seishu; Miyauchi, Carlos Makoto; Iizuka, Kunio; Yokoyama, Ryoichi; Shinada, Takamitsu; Yamamoto, Yuki; Hanawa, Sugiko; Araki, Tsuyoshi; Hashizume, Hiroshi; Sassa, Yuko; Kawashima, Ryuta

    2015-11-01

    The areas of academic interest (sciences or humanities) and area of study have been known to be associated with a number of factors associated with autistic traits. However, despite the vast amount of literature on the psychological and physiological characteristics associated with faculty membership, brain structural characteristics associated with faculty membership have never been investigated directly. In this study, we used voxel-based morphometry to investigate differences in regional gray matter volume (rGMV)/regional white matter volume (rWMV) between science and humanities students to test our hypotheses that brain structures previously robustly shown to be altered in autistic subjects are related to differences in faculty membership. We examined 312 science students (225 males and 87 females) and 179 humanities students (105 males and 74 females). Whole-brain analyses of covariance revealed that after controlling for age, sex, and total intracranial volume, the science students had significantly larger rGMV in an anatomical cluster around the medial prefrontal cortex and the frontopolar area, whereas the humanities students had significantly larger rWMV in an anatomical cluster mainly concentrated around the right hippocampus. These anatomical structures have been linked to autism in previous studies and may mediate cognitive functions that characterize differences in faculty membership. The present results may support the ideas that autistic traits and characteristics of the science students compared with the humanities students share certain characteristics from neuroimaging perspectives. This study improves our understanding of differences in faculty membership which is the link among cognition, biological factors, disorders, and education (academia).

  7. Computer Education for Engineers, Part III.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McCullough, Earl S.; Lofy, Frank J.

    1989-01-01

    Reports the results of the third survey of computer use in engineering education conducted in the fall of 1987 in comparing with 1981 and 1984 results. Summarizes survey data on computer course credits, languages, equipment use, CAD/CAM instruction, faculty access, and computer graphics. (YP)

  8. Bibliography: Citations Obtained Through the National Library of Medicine's MEDLARS Program

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Journal of Medical Education, 1978

    1978-01-01

    Approximately 300 English- and foreign-language references are cited in this MED LARS bibliography on these topics: accreditation and certification, computers, continuing medical education, curriculum, educational measurement, faculty, graduate education, internship and residency, minority groups, medical schools, specialization, students,…

  9. 34 CFR 663.7 - What definitions apply to this program?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FULBRIGHT-HAYS FACULTY RESEARCH ABROAD FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM... studies means a program of comprehensive study of the aspects of a society or societies, including the study of their geography, history, culture, economy, politics, international relations, and languages...

  10. 34 CFR 663.7 - What definitions apply to this program?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FULBRIGHT-HAYS FACULTY RESEARCH ABROAD FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM... studies means a program of comprehensive study of the aspects of a society or societies, including the study of their geography, history, culture, economy, politics, international relations, and languages...

  11. 34 CFR 663.7 - What definitions apply to this program?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FULBRIGHT-HAYS FACULTY RESEARCH ABROAD FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM... studies means a program of comprehensive study of the aspects of a society or societies, including the study of their geography, history, culture, economy, politics, international relations, and languages...

  12. 34 CFR 663.7 - What definitions apply to this program?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FULBRIGHT-HAYS FACULTY RESEARCH ABROAD FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM... studies means a program of comprehensive study of the aspects of a society or societies, including the study of their geography, history, culture, economy, politics, international relations, and languages...

  13. 34 CFR 663.7 - What definitions apply to this program?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FULBRIGHT-HAYS FACULTY RESEARCH ABROAD FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM... studies means a program of comprehensive study of the aspects of a society or societies, including the study of their geography, history, culture, economy, politics, international relations, and languages...

  14. 34 CFR 656.7 - What definitions apply?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... institution of higher education that has direct access to highly qualified faculty and library resources, and... that— (1) Contributes significantly to the national interest in advanced research and scholarship; (2) Offers intensive language instruction; (3) Maintains important library collections related to the area of...

  15. 34 CFR 656.7 - What definitions apply?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... institution of higher education that has direct access to highly qualified faculty and library resources, and... that— (1) Contributes significantly to the national interest in advanced research and scholarship; (2) Offers intensive language instruction; (3) Maintains important library collections related to the area of...

  16. 34 CFR 656.7 - What definitions apply?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... institution of higher education that has direct access to highly qualified faculty and library resources, and... that— (1) Contributes significantly to the national interest in advanced research and scholarship; (2) Offers intensive language instruction; (3) Maintains important library collections related to the area of...

  17. 34 CFR 656.7 - What definitions apply?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... institution of higher education that has direct access to highly qualified faculty and library resources, and... that— (1) Contributes significantly to the national interest in advanced research and scholarship; (2) Offers intensive language instruction; (3) Maintains important library collections related to the area of...

  18. 34 CFR 656.7 - What definitions apply?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... institution of higher education that has direct access to highly qualified faculty and library resources, and... that— (1) Contributes significantly to the national interest in advanced research and scholarship; (2) Offers intensive language instruction; (3) Maintains important library collections related to the area of...

  19. SQL/NF Translator for the Triton Nested Relational Database System

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1990-12-01

    18as., Ohio .. 9~~ ~~ 1 4- AFIT/GCE/ENG/90D-05 SQL/Nk1 TRANSLATOR FOR THE TRITON NESTED RELATIONAL DATABASE SYSTEM THESIS Craig William Schnepf Captain...FOR THE TRITON NESTED RELATIONAL DATABASE SYSTEM THESIS Presented to the Faculty of the School of Engineering of the Air Force Institute of Technnlogy... systems . The SQL/NF query language used for the nested relationil model is an extension of the popular relational model query language SQL. The query

  20. Can a comprehensive code of conduct discourage incivility in nursing students?

    PubMed

    Authement, Renae

    2016-08-01

    This article discusses problems associated with incivility in nursing education and a proposed implementation strategy designed to decrease uncivil acts of student behavior. Like most colleges across the nation, this nursing program was experiencing an increase in acts of student incivility. Incivility, also called bullying, may include behaviors such as name calling, side conversations, and condescending language. The sample consisted of 94 third-semester nursing students and 6 faculty members. The Incivility in Nursing Education survey was used as a tool to measure student and faculty perceptions. Data from pre- and postimplementation surveys demonstrated scientific evidence of both faculty and student perception and a significant decrease in acts of uncivil behavior in the nursing program. Because the study was limited to one nursing program and included only third-semester nursing students, the results of the study may not be transferable to all nursing programs. The study revealed a reduction in perceived uncivil acts of behavior in the nursing program by faculty and students.

  1. Investigating Information-Seeking Behavior of Faculty Members Based on Wilson’s Model: Case Study of PNU University, Mazandaran, Iran

    PubMed Central

    Azadeh, Fereydoon; Ghasemi, Shahrzad

    2016-01-01

    The present research aims to study information seeking behavior of faculty Members of Payame Noor University (PNU) in Mazandaran province of Iran by using Wilson’s model of information seeking behavior. This is a survey study. Participants were 97 of PNU faculty Members in Mazandaran province. An information-seeking behavior inventory was employed to gather information and research data, which had 24 items based on 5-point likert scale. Collected data were analyzed in SPSS software. Results showed that the most important goal of faculty members was publishing a scientific paper, and their least important goal was updating technical information. Also we found that they mostly use internet-based resources to meet their information needs. Accordingly, 57.7% of them find information resources via online search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo). Also we concluded that there was a significant relationship between English language proficiency, academic rank, and work experience of them and their information- seeking behavior. PMID:27157151

  2. A text of two titles: Kant's 'A renewed attempt to answer the question: "is the human race continually improving"?

    PubMed

    Zammito, John H

    2008-12-01

    The essay, 'A renewed attempt to answer the question: "Is the human race continually improving?"' appeared as Part II of Kant's 1798 publication, The conflict of the faculties, where it was subordinated under a second title: 'The conflict of the philosophy faculty with the faculty of law'. How did this new situation (and title) affects the meaning of the essay? My argument considers first, the conflict of the faculty of philosophy with the faculty of law; second, the earlier philosophy of history Kant had developed; and, finally, the revision of this position in 'A renewed attempt'. The situation of his argument in the contest between the philosophical and the legal faculties points to other veins of argumentation in Kant's political theory, particularly his appeal to a principle of publicity, but they hardly achieve the theoretical clarity or the systematic centrality they should command. They are displaced in the quest for prediction of the future history of mankind. The question of human progress exceeds the frame of the coordination of the university, and the main question must remain: what was new in Kant's approach to the question of human progress, and was it in fact an enhancement of his philosophy of history? In those terms, 'A renewed attempt' must be regarded a distinct failure. Its innovations prove problematic. Its retreats and equivocations, moreover, threaten to undermine the grander vision of Kant's philosophical history and his political theory, entangling them in an unacceptably theological recourse.

  3. Using nonfaculty registered nurses to facilitate high-fidelity human patient simulation activities.

    PubMed

    Foster, Janet G; Sheriff, Susan; Cheney, Susan

    2008-01-01

    Maximizing faculty resources using nonfaculty registered nurses to supervise high-fidelity human-patient simulation is an innovative strategy for addressing the nursing faculty shortage and preparing graduates to practice safely in hospitals. The authors describe their use of nonfaculty registered nurses and its outcomes.

  4. Faculty Research Productivity: Some Moderators of Associated Stressors.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Blackburn, Robert T.; Bently, Richard J.

    1993-01-01

    A study with 894 college faculty investigated the effects of certain stress variables on different kinds of faculty research activity; psychological and organizational variables thought to moderate stress; and the effects of stressors and moderators for gender, institution type, and discipline (humanities, social sciences, natural sciences)…

  5. Faculty Development Tug O'War, or Up a Tree with a Tuning Fork

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Neff, Charles B.

    1976-01-01

    A plea is made for a rational and humane effort to reconcile conflicting forces in a genuine movement of faculty development. Faculty members are pulled in two directions: one toward improving performance, and the other toward accountability, retrenchment, or budget cutting. (LBH)

  6. Using student writing assignments to assess critical thinking skills: a holistic approach.

    PubMed

    Niedringhaus, L K

    2001-04-01

    This work offers an example of one school's holistic approach to the evaluation of critical thinking by using student writing assignments. Faculty developed tools to assess achievement of critical thinking competencies, such as analysis, synthesis, insight, reflection, open mindedness, and depth, breadth, and appropriateness of clinical interventions. Faculty created a model for the development of program-specific critical thinking competencies, selected appropriate writing assignments that demonstrate critical thinking, and implemented a holistic assessment plan for data collection and analysis. Holistic assessment involves the identification of shared values and practices, and the use of concepts and language important to nursing.

  7. "The era of single disease cowboys is out": evaluating the experiences of students, faculty, and collaborators in an interdisciplinary global health training program.

    PubMed

    Kalbarczyk, Anna; Martin, Nina A; Combs, Emily; Ward, Marie; Winch, Peter J

    2018-03-01

    Global Health is an inherently interdisciplinary field but overseas training in global health, particularly among health science institutions, has been an 'individual' or 'individual discipline' experience. Team-based training is an approach to global health education which is increasing in popularity; research on team-training demonstrates that teams are more productive than individuals. In 2015, the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health (CGH) developed the Global Established Multidisciplinary Sites (GEMS) program, an interdisciplinary training program which was designed to establish a new norm in global health training by bringing interdisciplinary teams of faculty and students together to identify and solve complex global health challenges. This research aims to evaluate the program's first year and contribute to the literature on interdisciplinary team training. We conducted 22 in-depth interviews with students, faculty, and local collaborators from 3 GEMS project sites. Findings were analyzed for themes through a framework approach. The program exposed students, faculty, and collaborators to a wide range of disciplines in global health. Students' desire to learn how other disciplines contribute to global health solutions was an important motivator for joining GEMS; many participants including faculty and collaborators valued exposure to multiple disciplines. Mentorship and communication were a challenge across all teams in part due to members having distinct "disciplinary languages". Balancing disciplinary representation on teams and establishing work plans were also key challenges. Based on the data the CGH provides four recommendations for institutions developing global health interdisciplinary teams to optimize team functioning and address challenges in mentorship, language, and roles: 1) address interdisciplinary communication early, 2) develop work plans during group formation, 3) meet as a team prior to travel, and 4) establish regular check ins. This article provides first-hand reflections on interdisciplinary team experiences in a global context and provides a pathway for the development of innovative strategies in global health training.

  8. Climate Science across the Liberal Arts Curriculum at Gustavus Adolphus College

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bartley, J. K.; Triplett, L.; Dontje, J.; Huber, T.; Koomen, M.; Jeremiason, J.; La Frenierre, J.; Niederriter, C.; Versluis, A.

    2014-12-01

    The human and social dimensions of climate change are addressed in courses in humanities, social sciences, and arts disciplines. However, faculty members in these disciplines are not climate science experts and thus may feel uncomfortable discussing the science that underpins our understanding of climate change. In addition, many students are interested in the connections between climate change and their program of study, but not all students take courses that address climate science as a principal goal. At Gustavus Adolphus College, the Climate Science Project aims to help non-geoscience faculty introduce climate science content in their courses in order to increase climate science literacy among students and inform discussions of the implications of climate change. We assembled an interdisciplinary team of faculty with climate science expertise to develop climate science modules for use in non-geoscience courses. Faculty from the social sciences, humanities, arts, education, and natural sciences attended workshops in which they developed plans to include climate science in their courses. Based on these workshops, members of the development team created short modules for use by participating faculty that introduce climate science concepts to a non-specialist audience. Each module was tested and modified prior to classroom implementation by a team of faculty and geoscience students. Faculty and student learning are assessed throughout the process, and participating faculty members are interviewed to improve the module development process. The Climate Science Project at Gustavus Adolphus College aims to increase climate science literacy in both faculty members and students by creating accessible climate science content and supporting non-specialist faculty in learning key climate science concepts. In this way, climate science becomes embedded in current course offerings, including non-science courses, reaching many more students than new courses or enhanced content in the geosciences can reach. In addition, this model can be adopted by institutions with limited geoscience course offerings to increase geoscience literacy among a broad cross-section of students.

  9. Supporting Learners with Cognitive Impairments in Online Environments

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Grabinger, R. Scott; Aplin, Cary; Ponnappa-Brenner, Gitanjali

    2008-01-01

    Educational Technology;Technology Integration;The field of education now faces an increasingly diverse student body that includes English as second language speakers, those with physical as well as psychiatric disabilities, and multiple representations of races, ethnicities, and religions. Traditionally, postsecondary faculty have thought of…

  10. A Case Study Optimizing Human Resources in Rwanda's First Dental School: Three Innovative Management Tools.

    PubMed

    Hackley, Donna M; Mumena, Chrispinus H; Gatarayiha, Agnes; Cancedda, Corrado; Barrow, Jane R

    2018-06-01

    Harvard School of Dental Medicine, University of Maryland School of Dentistry, and the University of Rwanda (UR) are collaborating to create Rwanda's first School of Dentistry as part of the Human Resources for Health (HRH) Rwanda initiative that aims to strengthen the health care system of Rwanda. The HRH oral health team developed three management tools to measure progress in systems-strengthening efforts: 1) the road map is an operations plan for the entire dental school and facilitates delivery of the curriculum and management of human and material resources; 2) each HRH U.S. faculty member develops a work plan with targeted deliverables for his or her rotation, which is facilitated with biweekly flash reports that measure progress and keep the faculty member focused on his or her specific deliverables; and 3) the redesigned HRH twinning model, changed from twinning of an HRH faculty member with a single Rwandan faculty member to twinning with multiple Rwandan faculty members based on shared academic interests and goals, has improved efficiency, heightened engagement of the UR dental faculty, and increased the impact of HRH U.S. faculty members. These new tools enable the team to measure its progress toward the collaborative's goals and understand the successes and challenges in moving toward the planned targets. The tools have been valuable instruments in fostering discussion around priorities and deployment of resources as well as in developing strong relationships, enabling two-way exchange of knowledge, and promoting sustainability.

  11. Faculty development to enhance humanistic teaching and role modeling: a collaborative study at eight institutions.

    PubMed

    Branch, William T; Chou, Calvin L; Farber, Neil J; Hatem, David; Keenan, Craig; Makoul, Gregory; Quinn, Mariah; Salazar, William; Sillman, Jane; Stuber, Margaret; Wilkerson, LuAnn; Mathew, George; Fost, Michael

    2014-09-01

    There is increased emphasis on practicing humanism in medicine but explicit methods for faculty development in humanism are rare. We sought to demonstrate improved faculty teaching and role modeling of humanistic and professional values by participants in a multi-institutional faculty development program as rated by their learners in clinical settings compared to contemporaneous controls. Blinded learners in clinical settings rated their clinical teachers, either participants or controls, on the previously validated 10-item Humanistic Teaching Practices Effectiveness (HTPE) questionnaire. Groups of 7-9 participants at 8 academic medical centers completed an 18-month faculty development program. Participating faculty were chosen by program facilitators at each institution on the basis of being promising teachers, willing to participate in the longitudinal faculty development program. Our 18-month curriculum combined experiential learning of teaching skills with critical reflection using appreciative inquiry narratives about their experiences as teachers and other reflective discussions. The main outcome was the aggregate score of the ten items on the questionnaire at all institutions. The aggregate score favored participants over controls (P = 0.019) independently of gender, experience on faculty, specialty area, and/or overall teaching skills. Longitudinal, intensive faculty development that employs experiential learning and critical reflection likely enhances humanistic teaching and role modeling. Almost all participants completed the program. Results are generalizable to other schools.

  12. A mechanism for multidisciplinary dialogue: the memory & … series.

    PubMed

    Multhaup, Kristi S; Denham, Scott; Kelly, Hilton; Lom, Barbara

    2011-01-01

    Neuroscientists have long explored the mechanisms of memory from molecular, physiological, cognitive, and social perspectives. Scholars from other disciplines such as history, sociology, literature, and cultural studies, that do not traditionally cross-pollinate ideas with neuroscientists, also study memory from a variety of angles. In this article, we describe the founding of a multidisciplinary discussion series in which faculty and staff from the arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences come together to explain how memory is integral to their scholarship and teaching. After panelists from different disciplines present opening comments, the floor is open for discussion with the audience that includes students, staff, and community members, as well as other faculty. Each year the series is anchored by a keynote address by an eminent scholar engaged in cross-disciplinary memory research. We outline the benefits of such thematic discussion series, highlighting the synchrony with the academy's increasing focus on interdisciplinarity, and on the need to train scholars to speak clearly about their work beyond their own disciplinary boundaries. More specifically, we focus on the need to train scientists to communicate with non-scientists. We have experienced success with this series and believe that the format could be adapted to a wide range of issues that cross disciplines (e.g., development, language, music, environmental studies).

  13. A Mechanism for Multidisciplinary Dialogue: The Memory & … Series

    PubMed Central

    Multhaup, Kristi S.; Denham, Scott; Kelly, Hilton; Lom, Barbara

    2011-01-01

    Neuroscientists have long explored the mechanisms of memory from molecular, physiological, cognitive, and social perspectives. Scholars from other disciplines such as history, sociology, literature, and cultural studies, that do not traditionally cross-pollinate ideas with neuroscientists, also study memory from a variety of angles. In this article, we describe the founding of a multidisciplinary discussion series in which faculty and staff from the arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences come together to explain how memory is integral to their scholarship and teaching. After panelists from different disciplines present opening comments, the floor is open for discussion with the audience that includes students, staff, and community members, as well as other faculty. Each year the series is anchored by a keynote address by an eminent scholar engaged in cross-disciplinary memory research. We outline the benefits of such thematic discussion series, highlighting the synchrony with the academy’s increasing focus on interdisciplinarity, and on the need to train scholars to speak clearly about their work beyond their own disciplinary boundaries. More specifically, we focus on the need to train scientists to communicate with non-scientists. We have experienced success with this series and believe that the format could be adapted to a wide range of issues that cross disciplines (e.g., development, language, music, environmental studies). PMID:23626499

  14. Literature review: issues surrounding education of English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) nursing students.

    PubMed

    Choi, Liza Lai Shan

    2005-07-01

    Examined in this article are the challenges faced by English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) nursing students. Nursing faculties need to address these challenges to meet the increasing diversity of the health care system. A key concern is the ability of ESL nursing students to communicate effectively in English. The Cummins model for English language acquisition provides a template for ESL nursing students to bridge this communication barrier. The literature suggests some particular needs of ESL nursing students can be met through modification of nursing programs. Further research into factors affecting the quality of nursing education for ESL students is warranted. A quantitative analysis is required to see if there exists a positive correlation between improved English language acquisition and academic success by ESL nursing students.

  15. Improving Faculty Perceptions of and Intent to Use Simulation: An Intervention Project

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tucker, Charles

    2013-01-01

    Human patient simulation is an innovative teaching strategy that can facilitate practice development and preparation for entry into today's healthcare environment for nursing students. Unfortunately, the use of human patient simulation has been limited due to the perceptions of nursing faculty members. This project sought to explore those…

  16. Handbook and Resource Directory for International Students and Scholars. Revised.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Murray State Univ., KY.

    A handbook of information for foreign students, visiting scholars, and visiting faculty members is presented by Murray State University (Kentucky). The following topics are covered: academic life, automobiles, the Center for International Programs, child care, credential (transcript) evaluation, emergencies, employment, English language, finances,…

  17. The Emergence of a Community of Practice in Engineering Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kolikant, Yifat Ben-David; McKenna, Ann; Yalvac, Bugrahan

    2006-01-01

    This chapter describes how engineering faculty and learning scientists developed a collective wisdom--shared language, capabilities, and world view--in order to work together to achieve a common goal of developing course materials in the domain of biomedical engineering. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

  18. My Classroom: Georgia

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Baker, Melanie

    2017-01-01

    Khatuna Kharkheli is an English language teacher in the Faculty of Education, Exact, and Natural Sciences at Gori State Teaching University (GSTU) in Gori, Georgia. With her passion for developing innovative and creative lessons and with her commitment to professional development, Ms. Kharkheli works to inspire her students to achieve success both…

  19. Converging technologies in higher education: paradigm for the "new" liberal arts?

    PubMed

    Balmer, Robert T

    2006-12-01

    This article discusses the historic relationship between the practical arts (technology) and the mental (liberal) arts, suggesting that Converging Technologies is a new higher education paradigm that integrates the arts, humanities, and sciences with modern technology. It explains that the paradigm really includes all fields in higher education from philosophy to art to music to modern languages and beyond. To implement a transformation of this magnitude, it is necessary to understand the psychology of change in academia. Union College in Schenectady, New York, implemented a Converging Technologies Educational Paradigm in five steps: (1) create a compelling vision, (2) communicate the vision, (3) empower the faculty, (4) create short-term successes, and (5) institutionalize the results. This case study of Union College demonstrates it is possible to build a pillar of educational excellence based on Converging Technologies.

  20. Research priorities in medical education: A national study.

    PubMed

    Tootoonchi, Mina; Yamani, Nikoo; Changiz, Tahereh; Yousefy, Alireza

    2012-01-01

    One preliminary step to strengthen medical education research would be determining the research priorities. The aim of this study was to determine the research priorities of medical education in Iran in 2007-2008. This descriptive study was carried out in two phases. Phase one was performed in 3 stages and used Delphi technique among academic staffs of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. The three stages included a brainstorming workshop for 140 faculty members and educational experts resulting in a list of research priorities, then, in the second and third stages 99 and 76 questionnaires were distributed among faculty members. In the second phase, the final questionnaires were mailed to educational research center managers of universities type I, II and III, and were distributed among 311 academic members and educational experts to rate the items on a numerical scale ranging from 1 to 10. The most important research priorities included faculty members' development methods, faculty members' motives, satisfaction and welfare, criteria and procedures of faculty members' promotion, teaching methods and learning techniques, job descriptions and professional skills of graduates, quality management in education, second language, clinical education, science production in medicine, faculty evaluation and information technology. This study shows the medial education research priorities in national level and in different types of medical universities in Iran. It is recommended that faculty members and research administrators consider the needs and requirements of education and plan the researches in education according to these priorities.

  1. Research priorities in medical education: A national study

    PubMed Central

    Tootoonchi, Mina; Yamani, Nikoo; Changiz, Tahereh; Yousefy, Alireza

    2012-01-01

    BACKGROUND: One preliminary step to strengthen medical education research would be determining the research priorities. The aim of this study was to determine the research priorities of medical education in Iran in 2007-2008. METHODS: This descriptive study was carried out in two phases. Phase one was performed in 3 stages and used Delphi technique among academic staffs of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. The three stages included a brainstorming workshop for 140 faculty members and educational experts resulting in a list of research priorities, then, in the second and third stages 99 and 76 questionnaires were distributed among faculty members. In the second phase, the final questionnaires were mailed to educational research center managers of universities type I, II and III, and were distributed among 311 academic members and educational experts to rate the items on a numerical scale ranging from 1 to 10. RESULTS: The most important research priorities included faculty members’ development methods, faculty members’ motives, satisfaction and welfare, criteria and procedures of faculty members’ promotion, teaching methods and learning techniques, job descriptions and professional skills of graduates, quality management in education, second language, clinical education, science production in medicine, faculty evaluation and information technology. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows the medial education research priorities in national level and in different types of medical universities in Iran. It is recommended that faculty members and research administrators consider the needs and requirements of education and plan the researches in education according to these priorities. PMID:23248661

  2. Exploring Job Satisfaction of Nursing Faculty: Theoretical Approaches.

    PubMed

    Wang, Yingchen; Liesveld, Judy

    2015-01-01

    The Future of Nursing report identified the shortage of nursing faculty as 1 of the barriers to nursing education. In light of this, it is becoming increasingly important to understand the work-life of nursing faculty. The current research focused on job satisfaction of nursing faculty from 4 theoretical perspectives: human capital theory, which emphasizes the expected monetary and nonmonetary returns for any career choices; structural theory, which emphasizes the impact of institutional features on job satisfaction; positive extrinsic environment by self-determination theory, which asserts that a positive extrinsic environment promotes competency and effective outcomes at work; and psychological theory, which emphasizes the proposed relationship between job performance and satisfaction. In addition to the measures for human capital theory, institutional variables (from structural theory and self-determination theory), and productivity measures (from psychological theory), the authors also selected sets of variables for personal characteristics to investigate their effects on job satisfaction. The results indicated that variables related to human capital theory, especially salary, contributed the most to job satisfaction, followed by those related to institutional variables. Personal variables and productivity variables as a whole contributed as well. The only other variable with marginal significance was faculty's perception of institutional support for teaching. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  3. Where Are the Faculty Leaders?: Strategies and Advice for Reversing Current Trends

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kezar, Adrianna; Lester, Jaime; Carducci, Rozana; Gallant, Tricia Bertram; McGavin, Melissa Contreras

    2007-01-01

    Faculty members who work directly to advance the institutional mission of teaching, learning, and at some institutions, research, represent the core human resource of higher education. They are the stewards of campus leadership and decision making. While the faculty role has changed over time, leadership has remained critical to innovation in…

  4. Approaches Used by Faculty to Assess Critical Thinking--Implications for General Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nicholas, Mark; Raider-Roth, Miriam

    2011-01-01

    This investigation focused on a group of 17 faculty drawn from disciplines in the humanities social sciences and natural sciences. Using in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and qualitative coding strategies, this study examined how faculty conceptualized the term critical thinking (CT), and how they assessed for it in general education…

  5. The Twenty-First-Century Professoriate

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Plater, William M.

    2008-01-01

    Not long ago, most academic insiders felt confident in saying, "the faculty 'are' the university." The faculty may still be the university, but who are the faculty? From public community colleges to private research universities, America has created the most powerful machine for the development of human capital in the history of the world. Yet an…

  6. Teaching Instrumentation and Methodology in Human Motion Analysis

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2001-10-25

    TEACHING INSTRUMENTATION AND METHODOLOGY IN HUMAN MOTION ANALYSIS V. Medved Faculty of Physical Education , University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia...the introducement of teaching curricula to implement the apropriate knowledge. Problems are discussed of educating professionals and disseminating...University of Zagreb, undergraduate teaching of locomotion biomechanics is provided only at the Faculty of Physical Education . Following a need to teach

  7. 34 CFR 535.21 - What selection criteria does the Secretary use?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... competence and experience in programs and activities such as those authorized under the Act; (5) The IHE's... another language to develop the Fellows' competencies as trainers of bilingual educational personnel. (c) Quality of key faculty members. (20 points) The Secretary reviews each application to determine the...

  8. 34 CFR 535.21 - What selection criteria does the Secretary use?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... competence and experience in programs and activities such as those authorized under the Act; (5) The IHE's... another language to develop the Fellows' competencies as trainers of bilingual educational personnel. (c) Quality of key faculty members. (20 points) The Secretary reviews each application to determine the...

  9. 34 CFR 535.21 - What selection criteria does the Secretary use?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... competence and experience in programs and activities such as those authorized under the Act; (5) The IHE's... another language to develop the Fellows' competencies as trainers of bilingual educational personnel. (c) Quality of key faculty members. (20 points) The Secretary reviews each application to determine the...

  10. Integrating Sociopolitical Awareness into a Teacher Education Curriculum.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Major, Elza Magalhaes; Celedon-Pattichis, Sylvia

    2001-01-01

    Discusses critical pedagogy in teacher education and defines constructivist practices. Describes the structure of an English-as-a-Second-Language endorsement program, and focuses on Awareness Week, describing the role of student leadership in the program and the supporting role of the faculty and the coursework. (Author/VWL)

  11. Teaching the Process Approach in Poland.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carter, Ronnie D.

    Members of the Polish faculty at the English Institute (Poland) primarily use English as a second language (ESL) techniques to teach writing, with grammar and idiom drills, and little writing beyond the sentence level. An American professor, on the other hand, used a process approach to teach writing by providing specific instructions about…

  12. Interrupting the Professional Schism That Allows Less Successful Educational Practices with ELLs to Persist

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hamann, Edmund T.; Reeves, Jenelle

    2013-01-01

    Different worldviews, different histories of induction into teaching, presumed differences in responsibilities, and different emphases in preservice and in-service preparation have all long contributed to enduring schisms that keep general education (or mainstream) teachers and English language support faculty from coordinating and finding common…

  13. A Narrative Inquiry into Corporate Unknowns: Faculty Experiences Concerning Privatized-Partnership Matriculation Pathway Programs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Winkle, Carter Allen

    2011-01-01

    Host universities of Intensive English Programs (IEPs) commonly found on university campuses as a means to preparing English language learners (ELL) for tertiary education are being targeted by for-profit educational service providers for privatized partnerships. Partnership agreements generally include provisions for assumption of international…

  14. Trying To Stay Alive in the Age of Eliminations and Reductions.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Diment, Galya

    1998-01-01

    Describes and reflects on the experience of the University of Washington's Slavic languages program when faced with termination in 1995, including the initial response of faculty, staff, and students; the successful effort made to garner support from other institutions, alumni, business, and organizations; relations with the legislature;…

  15. Past Is Prologue: The Classics Today.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lukes, Alana Karalius

    1992-01-01

    Stresses the relevance of Greek and Roman cultures and languages to the study of contemporary U.S. culture. Architecture, science, government, drama, mathematics, religion, and music are compared and contrasted. Faculty and students participate in this interdisciplinary approach to develop new awareness of links between past and present cultures.…

  16. The Impact of Integrated Student Experiences on Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wingert, Jason R.; Wasileski, Sally A.; Peterson, Karin; Mathews, Leah Greden; Lanou, Amy Joy; Clarke, David

    2014-01-01

    In a cluster of courses called Food for Thought, seven faculty from different departments (including Biology, Economics, Sociology, Chemistry, Health and Wellness, and Foreign Language) teach students about food information, food consumerism, nutrition and health. The classes all have a shared learning outcome focused on developing the student as…

  17. Learning through Drama.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jensen, Ina; Rechis, Ruth; Luna, J. Don

    This chapter is part of a book that recounts the year's work at the Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) at Texas A & M University-Corpus Christi. Rather than an "elitist" laboratory school for the children of university faculty, the dual-language ECDC is a collaboration between the Corpus Christi Independent School District and…

  18. A Multi-Institutional Longitudinal Faculty Development Program in Humanism Supports the Professional Development of Faculty Teachers.

    PubMed

    Branch, William T; Frankel, Richard M; Hafler, Janet P; Weil, Amy B; Gilligan, MaryAnn C; Litzelman, Debra K; Plews-Ogan, Margaret; Rider, Elizabeth A; Osterberg, Lars G; Dunne, Dana; May, Natalie B; Derse, Arthur R

    2017-12-01

    The authors describe the first 11 academic years (2005-2006 through 2016-2017) of a longitudinal, small-group faculty development program for strengthening humanistic teaching and role modeling at 30 U.S. and Canadian medical schools that continues today. During the yearlong program, small groups of participating faculty met twice monthly with a local facilitator for exercises in humanistic teaching, role modeling, and related topics that combined narrative reflection with skills training using experiential learning techniques. The program focused on the professional development of its participants. Thirty schools participated; 993 faculty, including some residents, completed the program.In evaluations, participating faculty at 13 of the schools scored significantly more positively as rated by learners on all dimensions of medical humanism than did matched controls. Qualitative analyses from several cohorts suggest many participants had progressed to more advanced stages of professional identity formation after completing the program. Strong engagement and attendance by faculty participants as well as the multimodal evaluation suggest that the program may serve as a model for others. Recently, most schools adopting the program have offered the curriculum annually to two or more groups of faculty participants to create sufficient numbers of trained faculty to positively influence humanistic teaching at the institution.The authors discuss the program's learning theory, outline its curriculum, reflect on the program's accomplishments and plans for the future, and state how faculty trained in such programs could lead institutional initiatives and foster positive change in humanistic professional development at all levels of medical education.

  19. A Multi-Institutional Longitudinal Faculty Development Program in Humanism Supports the Professional Development of Faculty Teachers

    PubMed Central

    Frankel, Richard M.; Hafler, Janet P.; Weil, Amy B.; Gilligan, MaryAnn C.; Litzelman, Debra K.; Plews-Ogan, Margaret; Rider, Elizabeth A.; Osterberg, Lars G.; Dunne, Dana; May, Natalie B.; Derse, Arthur R.

    2017-01-01

    The authors describe the first 11 academic years (2005–2006 through 2016–2017) of a longitudinal, small-group faculty development program for strengthening humanistic teaching and role modeling at 30 U.S. and Canadian medical schools that continues today. During the yearlong program, small groups of participating faculty met twice monthly with a local facilitator for exercises in humanistic teaching, role modeling, and related topics that combined narrative reflection with skills training using experiential learning techniques. The program focused on the professional development of its participants. Thirty schools participated; 993 faculty, including some residents, completed the program. In evaluations, participating faculty at 13 of the schools scored significantly more positively as rated by learners on all dimensions of medical humanism than did matched controls. Qualitative analyses from several cohorts suggest many participants had progressed to more advanced stages of professional identity formation after completing the program. Strong engagement and attendance by faculty participants as well as the multimodal evaluation suggest that the program may serve as a model for others. Recently, most schools adopting the program have offered the curriculum annually to two or more groups of faculty participants to create sufficient numbers of trained faculty to positively influence humanistic teaching at the institution. The authors discuss the program’s learning theory, outline its curriculum, reflect on the program’s accomplishments and plans for the future, and state how faculty trained in such programs could lead institutional initiatives and foster positive change in humanistic professional development at all levels of medical education. PMID:28991846

  20. Mentoring and role models in recruitment and retention: a study of junior medical faculty perceptions.

    PubMed

    Steele, Margaret M; Fisman, Sandra; Davidson, Brenda

    2013-05-01

    This study explored the views of junior faculty toward informing mentorship program development. Mixed sampling methodologies including questionnaires (n = 175), focus groups (female, n = 4; male, n = 4), and individual interviews (female n = 10; male, n = 9) of junior faculty were conducted in clinical departments at one academic health sciences center. Questionnaire results indicated that having role models increased commitment to an academic career; mentorship experience during residency training was a high incentive to pursue an academic career; and junior faculty did have identifiable mentorship experiences. Focus group results revealed that mentoring as well as the presence of role models a few years ahead of the junior faculty would promote career development. Females preferred similar age role models who spoke the same language, particularly in the area of promotion. Females identified several challenges and issues including a lack of researcher role models, a range of perceptions regarding the merits of formal versus informal mentoring, and the idea that mentors should provide advice on promotion and grants. Males valued advice on finances while females wanted advice on work-life balance. Mentorship emerged as an important factor in academic faculty recruitment and retention, with varying perceptions of how it should be institutionalized. Role models were viewed as important for retention, and a paucity of mid-career, female researcher role models suggests a gap to be filled in future programmatic efforts.

  1. Using distance technology to learn across borders: a virtual travel course in nursing.

    PubMed

    Gallagher-Lepak, Susan; Block, Derryl; Rojas, Yrene Esperanza Urbina; Birkholz, Lorri; Melgar Morán, Carlos Christian

    2011-08-01

    A 6-week online course was developed and delivered to nursing students and instructors at universities in two countries. The course exposed students and faculty to nursing and health concerns in both countries. All course communications were conducted in both English and Spanish, with support from online translation software as needed. Course content covered professional nursing, global health issues, and nursing interventions used with clinical problems. Although students were initially intimidated by the course language requirements, students valued the opportunity to learn about cultural and health issues. Faculty experienced a learning curve as well and enjoyed this international experience. Copyright 2011, SLACK Incorporated.

  2. Interrelationship between learning English language and students' medical education.

    PubMed

    Milosavljević, Natasa

    2008-01-01

    Medical students and researchers need to learn English, not only because it is the means of teaching and learning, but also because its knowledge is necessary in their research activities. The objective of this study was to determine the importance of the study of English language learning for student medical education. The investigation was carried out among students of the Medical Faculty of Nis in 2006. The investigation included 312 students of all years of study and departments and was conducted using a questionnaire. Average rate in writing skill was 4.64 +/- 0.6, in speaking skill 4.62 +/- 0.6, while the students of the College of Nursing showed significantly lower average value. The average value of learning the foreign language was: writing (3.161 +/- .09); speaking (3.27 +/- 1.1); reading (3.84 +/- 1.0) and understanding (3.85 +/- 1.1). The students of the College of Nursing showed significantly lower grades in comparison to the other three Departments. The comparison analysis was done in order to determine the relation of writing and speaking skills in mother tongue and foreign language. As for the English language, the relation of writing and speaking skills was very strong (Pearson C = 0.641, p < 0.01), while in the mother tongue it was slightly lower (Pearson C = 0.44, p < 0.01). The percentage of students satisfied with their economic status was 55% and with social status 79%. The writing and speaking skills in the mother tongue and in English were significantly positively associated with students' satisfaction with their social and economic status, while satisfaction with achievements at the Faculty was associated only with the ability of verbal expression in the mother tongue. The students' satisfaction with their social and economic status was mostly associated with good oral skills in English, which indicates that good knowledge of a foreign language is of great influence on the status of an individual in a society.

  3. Gender Pay Equity in Higher Education: Salary Differentials and Predictors of Base Faculty Income

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Meyers, Laura E.

    2011-01-01

    This study investigates faculty gender pay equity in higher education. Using data from the 2004 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty and drawing on human capital theory, structural theory, and the theory of comparable worth, this study uses cross-classified random effects modeling to explore what factors may be contributing to the pay…

  4. Computers for the Faculty: How on a Limited Budget.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Arman, Hal; Kostoff, John

    An informal investigation of the use of computers at Delta College (DC) in Michigan revealed reasonable use of computers by faculty in disciplines such as mathematics, business, and technology, but very limited use in the humanities and social sciences. In an effort to increase faculty computer usage, DC decided to make computers available to any…

  5. Faculty Mentoring in Residence Halls: An Experiential Learning Process

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jhaveri, Hemlata

    2012-01-01

    As more demands are being placed on faculty inside of the classroom, the debate surrounding the feasibility of faculty having the time and resources to be involved outside the classroom continues. At the same time there is a growing concern that in light of current advancements in technology; oral communication skills, basic to human existence is…

  6. Academy-Community Partnerships: Challenges and Changes in Israeli Urban Regeneration Projects

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tal, Rinat Botbol; Fenster, Tovi; Kulka, Tal

    2015-01-01

    Students worked with low-income Jaffa residents on a 3-year building renewal project as part of a multidisciplinary clinic operated through the collaboration of the Faculty of Law, the Department of Geography at the Faculty of Humanities, and the Faculty of Management at Tel-Aviv University. Alternative models in the legal and planning literature…

  7. College Faculty Understanding of Hybrid Teaching Environments and Their Levels of Trainability by Departments

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Martinucci, Kenneth P.; Stein, Daniel; Wittmann, Helen C.; Morote, Elsa-Sofia

    2015-01-01

    We explored whether the knowledge of hybrid teaching (conceptions) or incorrect knowledge (misconceptions) or lack of knowledge differed among faculty from various teaching areas--education, social sciences, business, art and humanities, and math and sciences--in New York. One hundred twenty-eight faculty members responded to a test of their…

  8. In Defense of Theory.

    PubMed

    Jackendoff, Ray

    2017-03-01

    Formal theories of mental representation have receded from the importance they had in the early days of cognitive science. I argue that such theories are crucial in any mental domain, not just for their own sake, but to guide experimental inquiry, as well as to integrate the domain into the mind as a whole. To illustrate the criteria of adequacy for theories of mental representation, I compare two theoretical approaches to language: classical generative grammar (Chomsky, 1965, 1981, 1995) and the parallel architecture (Jackendoff, 1997, 2002). The grounds for comparison include (a) the internal coherence of the theory across phonology, syntax, and semantics; (b) the relation of language to other mental faculties; (c) the relationship between grammar and lexicon; (d) relevance to theories of language processing; and (e) the possibility of languages with little or no syntax. Copyright © 2015 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  9. Development of a Medical Humanities Program at Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine, Nova Scotia, Canada, 1992-2003.

    PubMed

    Murray, Jock

    2003-10-01

    The Medical Humanities Program at Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine in Nova Scotia, Canada, was initiated in 1992 to incorporate the medical humanities into the learning and experiences of medical students. The goal of the program was to gain acceptance as an integral part of the medical school. The program assumed a broad concept of the medical humanities that includes medical history, literature, music, art, multiculturalism, philosophy, epistemology, theology, anthropology, professionalism, history of alternative therapies, writing, storytelling, health law, international medicine, and ethics. Phase I of the program has provided the same elective and research opportunities in the medical humanities that are available to the students in clinical and basic sciences, and has encouraged and legitimized the involvement of the humanities in the life and learning of the medical student through a wide array of programs and activities. Phase II will focus on further incorporation of the humanities into the curriculum. Phase III will be the development of a graduate program in medical humanities to train more faculty who will incorporate the humanities into their teaching and into the development of education programs.

  10. English Language Support for Engineering Students and Professors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Teshigawara, Mihoko

    The University of Tokushima Graduate School of Advanced Technology and Science has launched the International Affiliated Double-Degree Program. In this program students pursue double degrees in engineering at the graduate level organized between the Graduate School and one of its 11 overseas partner institutions. Since the Graduate School is committed to offering content lectures in English, the faculty members involved need a good command of English. Future outgoing students also have to improve their English (and the local language spoken at the partner institution) to conduct academic activities at the partner institution successfully. This paper describes the author‧s continuing efforts toward the provision and improvement of English language support for engineering students and instructors, touching on similar activities elsewhere.

  11. Using Economic Incentives to Recruit Community College Faculty: Effects of Starting Salary and Healthcare Benefits Plan

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Winter, Paul A.; Petrosko, Joseph M.; Rodriguez, Glenn

    2007-01-01

    Staffing the nation's community colleges with qualified faculty is an emerging problem. The problem results from massive retirements among members of the post-WW II "baby boom" generation and intense competition from other sectors of the economy for scarce human talent. This study was a faculty-recruitment simulation designed to investigate the…

  12. Examination of Attitudes towards Teaching Online Courses Based on Theory of Reasoned Action of University Faculty in Taiwan

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chen, Tzy-Ling; Chen, Tzu-Jung

    2006-01-01

    This study examined attitudes of university faculty specialising in the field of human resource (HR) in Taiwan towards participation in the teaching of online courses using the theory of reasoned action (TRA). The population targeted for investigation consisted of the full-time university faculty in the HR field in Taiwan regardless of their…

  13. Concerns and Professional Development Needs of Faculty at King Abdul-Aziz University in Saudi Arabia in Adopting Online Teaching

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kamal, Bakor

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate concerns regarding the adoption of online teaching as expressed by faculty and instructors in six departments in the College of Arts and Humanities at King Abdulaziz University. Additionally, it investigated faculty professional development needs in adopting online teaching. The data in this study were…

  14. Supporting School Responsiveness to Immigrant Families and Children: A University-School Partnership

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mogge, Stephen G.; Martinez-Alba, Gilda; Cruzado-Guerrero, Judith

    2017-01-01

    A partnership between a university program and an urban public school was created to help the school respond to the significant increase in the school's population of immigrant, English language learners. School staff and university faculty established an agenda to learn about local immigrant families, improve communications with the families, and…

  15. Instructional Internships: Improving the Teaching and Learning Experience for Students, Interns, and Faculty

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hemmerich, Abby L.; Hoepner, Jerry K.; Samelson, Vicki M.

    2015-01-01

    Students training for clinical careers must acquire skills for teaching clients, their families, and fellow professionals. Guidelines for training programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders (Speech-Language Pathology), however, do not currently include standards for pedagogy. The aim of this study was to measure changes in undergraduate…

  16. Over Ten Million Served: Gendered Service in Language and Literature Workplaces

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Masse, Michelle A., Ed.; Hogan, Katie J., Ed.

    2010-01-01

    All tenured and tenure-track faculty know the trinity of promotion and tenure criteria: research, teaching, and service. While teaching and research are relatively well-defined areas of institutional focus and evaluation, service work is rarely tabulated or analyzed as a key aspect of higher education's political economy. Instead, service, silent…

  17. Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Case Study of ESL Teacher Educator

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Liu, Siping

    2013-01-01

    This single-case study focuses on the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of a university faculty member teaching Second Language Acquisition to elementary teacher candidates. The research questions address the pattern and development of PCK for ESL teaching. Based on data from classroom observation, interviews and document review, the study finds…

  18. Learners and Faculty Creative Partnerships through Building a Virtual Community: Their Experiences Toward Sharing Knowledge Online

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kurubacak, Gulsun

    2005-01-01

    In the 21st century, there is a new paradigms shift from traditional distance education approaches to network -based elearning understandings in universities and colleges. Therefore, economy (cost effectiveness and efficiency), technology (communication technologies) and equity (gender, accessibility, minority, language, religion etc.) are vital…

  19. Developing Oral Presentation Competence in Professional Contexts: A Design-Based Collaborative Approach

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pathak, Anil; Le Vasan, Mani

    2015-01-01

    The need to develop oral presentation skills with reference to students' specialized professional contexts has been well-recognised. Attempts have also been made to develop collaboration between engineering faculty and language teaching professionals. In this paper, we describe an experiment where students were given an opportunity to demonstrate…

  20. Teaching Abroad: Lessons Learned about Inter-cultural Understanding for Teachers in Higher Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bodycott, Peter; Walker, Allan

    2000-01-01

    Discusses the intercultural effects on college faculty teaching abroad through an exploration of the experiences of two teaching academics working in Hong Kong with emphasis on issues of language and communication and social and cultural distance. Argues that the development of intercultural understandings must permeate the curricula, and be a…

  1. Poetry in the Academy: A Language of Possibility

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Leggo, Carl

    2018-01-01

    As a poet, researcher, and teacher in the academy, I have pursued my vocation with an abiding commitment to both creative and critical discourse. I inquire into my autobiographical experiences as a poet, researcher, and teacher in the institutional contexts of a Faculty of Education by creating a performance of poetry that seeks to honour…

  2. Bridging the Gap between Linguistic and Pragmatic Assessment in Turkish Contexts

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tulgar, Aysegul Takkac; Yagiz, Oktay; Han, Turgay

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this qualitative study was to reach an understanding of the perceptions and self-evaluations of faculty members and students regarding pragmatic assessment in foreign language education. The participants were the academics and students in EFL departments at six state universities in Turkey. The data were collected through six…

  3. Language Ideologies and the Settlement House Movement: A New History for Service-Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rabin, Lisa M.

    2009-01-01

    A significant number of community service-learning projects in higher education involve the teaching or tutoring of immigrants in English. As in related service-learning scholarship, these projects are commonly informed by perspectives on cultural difference, social justice, and power relations in U.S. society. Yet while faculty pair their…

  4. Cross-Dialectal Comparison: A Case Study and Some Theoretical Considerations

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chen, Matthew

    1973-01-01

    Revised version of a paper delivered at the 5th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Language and Linguistic Studies, Ann Arbor, Michigan, October 20-21, 1972. Assistance provided through a Summer Faculty Fellowship, University of California, San Diego, and the Phonology Laboratory at Berkeley (supported in part by a National Science…

  5. Designing English for Specific Purposes Course for Computer Science Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Irshad, Isra; Anwar, Behzad

    2018-01-01

    The aim of this study was to design English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course for University students enrolled in the Computer Science Department. For this purpose, academic English language needs of the students were analyzed by using a 5 point Likert scale questionnaire. Additionally, interviews were also conducted with four faculty members of…

  6. Rewriting and Paraphrasing Source Texts in Second Language Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shi, Ling

    2012-01-01

    The present study is based on interviews with 48 students and 27 instructors in a North American university and explores whether students and professors across faculties share the same views on the use of paraphrased, summarized, and translated texts in four examples of L2 student writing. Participants' comments centered on whether the paraphrases…

  7. Automated Analysis of Text in Graduate School Recommendations. Research Report. ETS RR-15-23

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Heilman, Michael; Breyer, F. Jay; Williams, Frank; Klieger, David; Flor, Michael

    2015-01-01

    Graduate school recommendations are an important part of admissions in higher education, and natural language processing may be able to provide objective and consistent analyses of recommendation texts to complement readings by faculty and admissions staff. However, these sorts of high-stakes, personal recommendations are different from the…

  8. Integrating RSS Feeds of New Books into the Campus Course Management System

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Corrado, Edward M.; Moulaison, Heather L.

    2006-01-01

    By integrating RSS feeds of new books into their campus' course management system, the authors, a systems librarian (Corrado) and a cataloging/modern languages librarian (Moulaison) at the The College of New Jersey (TCNJ), simplified initial research and spotlighted the library's collections. Faculty members are flocking to this award-winning…

  9. Translating the Academy: Learning the Racialized Languages of Academia

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Monzó, Lilia D.; SooHoo, Suzanne

    2014-01-01

    This article presents narratives of 2 women faculty of color, 1 early career Latina and the other tenured Asian American woman, regarding their ontological and epistemological struggles in academia, as well as the hope, impetus, and strategies for change that they constructed together. Drawing on a critical pedagogy perspective, mentoring is…

  10. Expanding the Spanish Classroom: The "Art" in Liberal Arts

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Díaz, Erin M.

    2016-01-01

    Supplementing the foreign language curriculum with the incorporation of art museum visits has benefits for students, faculty, the campus art gallery, and the institution. Such a collaborative program serves to expand the classroom and complement instruction by providing learners with a new space to engage in authentic practice in the target…

  11. The Educational Forum: A Journal of Teaching, Learning & Professional Development. Volume One, Fall 1990.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fideler, Elizabeth F., Ed.

    1990-01-01

    This inaugural journal issue presents the perspectives of Massachusetts Bay Community College's faculty, administrators, and students on various aspects of community college education as practiced at the college. The journal contains the following articles: (1) "Adult Second Language Beginning Reading," by Ann Hilferty; (2) "Making Education a…

  12. Grass Roots' Voices on the CLIL Implementation in Tertiary Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fitriani, Ika

    2016-01-01

    Twenty-first Century era has brought great challenges in Indonesian education system, i.e. the increasing demand for the students to have foreign language skills to succeed in global world competition. Particularly in the higher education, the awareness of learning English leads some lecturers in Accounting Department Faculty of Economics State…

  13. Methods for Improving Test Scores: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wright, Robert J.

    2009-01-01

    The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB 2001) has the faculties of every public and charter school scrambling to drive test scores of seven identified groups of children (African-American children, Anglo-White children, children with disabilities, Hispanic children, children of poverty, children with English language limitations, and Native-American…

  14. Whose Model Student? Learner-Centered Discourse and the Post-Secondary Privatization Agenda

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hoben, John

    2016-01-01

    Using discourse analysis, the author identifies contradictions in privatization discourse in order to highlight how state-based educational reform has used a normative language of student interests to fundamentally redefine the nature of the university's mission and its faculty based governance structures. The author proposes a counter-discourse…

  15. Describing the Apprenticeship of Chemists through the Language of Faculty Scientists

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Skjold, Brandy Ann

    2012-01-01

    Attempts to bring authentic science into the K-16 classroom have led to the use of sociocultural theories of learning, particularly apprenticeship, to frame science education research. Science educators have brought apprenticeship to science classrooms and have brought students to research laboratories in order to gauge its benefits. The…

  16. The Use of Pre-Reading Activities in Reading Skills Achievement in Preschool Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Osei, Aboagye Michael; Liang, Qing Jing; Natalia, Ihnatushchenko; Stephen, Mensah Abrampah

    2016-01-01

    Although wealth of empirical researches have covered the impact of crucial, indispensable role reading skills play in the development of individuals' mental faculties through the acquisition of knowledge in a particular language, scientific works on the assessment of the relationship(s) between pre-reading activities (consisting of games, puzzle…

  17. Examining Social Political Contexts in Teacher Preparation in Palestine

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nasser, Ilham; Wong, Shelley

    2013-01-01

    This study explores teaching English as a foreign language in the West Bank, Palestine. It investigates the perspectives of a group of faculty, preservice, and in-service teachers about teaching and learning English in the primary grades under the overarching harsh realities of political conflict and instability. The study demonstrates the…

  18. Living science: Science as an activity of living beings.

    PubMed

    MacLennan, Bruce J

    2015-12-01

    The philosophy of science should accommodate itself to the facts of human existence, using all aspects of human experience to adapt more effectively, as individuals, species, and global ecosystem. This has several implications: (1) Our nature as sentient beings interacting with other sentient beings requires the use of phenomenological methods to investigate consciousness. (2) Our embodied, situated, purposeful physical interactions with the world are the foundation of scientific understanding. (3) Aristotle's four causes are essential for understanding living systems and, in particular, the final cause aids understanding the role of humankind, and especially science, in the global ecosystem. (4) In order to fulfill this role well, scientists need to employ the full panoply of human faculties. These include the consciousness faculties (thinking, sensation, feeling, intuition), and therefore, as advocated by many famous scientists, we should cultivate our aesthetic sense, emotions, imagination, and intuition. Our unconscious faculties include archetypal structures common to all humans, which can guide scientific discovery. By striving to engage the whole of human nature, science will fulfill better its function for humans and the global ecosystem. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  19. The evolution of the language faculty: clarifications and implications.

    PubMed

    Fitch, W Tecumseh; Hauser, Marc D; Chomsky, Noam

    2005-09-01

    In this response to Pinker and Jackendoff's critique, we extend our previous framework for discussion of language evolution, clarifying certain distinctions and elaborating on a number of points. In the first half of the paper, we reiterate that profitable research into the biology and evolution of language requires fractionation of "language" into component mechanisms and interfaces, a non-trivial endeavor whose results are unlikely to map onto traditional disciplinary boundaries. Our terminological distinction between FLN and FLB is intended to help clarify misunderstandings and aid interdisciplinary rapprochement. By blurring this distinction, Pinker and Jackendoff mischaracterize our hypothesis 3 which concerns only FLN, not "language" as a whole. Many of their arguments and examples are thus irrelevant to this hypothesis. Their critique of the minimalist program is for the most part equally irrelevant, because very few of the arguments in our original paper were tied to this program; in an online appendix we detail the deep inaccuracies in their characterization of this program. Concerning evolution, we believe that Pinker and Jackendoff's emphasis on the past adaptive history of the language faculty is misplaced. Such questions are unlikely to be resolved empirically due to a lack of relevant data, and invite speculation rather than research. Preoccupation with the issue has retarded progress in the field by diverting research away from empirical questions, many of which can be addressed with comparative data. Moreover, offering an adaptive hypothesis as an alternative to our hypothesis concerning mechanisms is a logical error, as questions of function are independent of those concerning mechanism. The second half of our paper consists of a detailed response to the specific data discussed by Pinker and Jackendoff. Although many of their examples are irrelevant to our original paper and arguments, we find several areas of substantive disagreement that could be resolved by future empirical research. We conclude that progress in understanding the evolution of language will require much more empirical research, grounded in modern comparative biology, more interdisciplinary collaboration, and much less of the adaptive storytelling and phylogenetic speculation that has traditionally characterized the field.

  20. Allocation of Academic Workloads in the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences at a South African University

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Botha, P. A.; Swanepoel, S.

    2015-01-01

    This article reports on the results of a statistical analysis of the weekly working hours of academics in a Faculty of Human and Social Sciences at a South African university. The aim was to quantify, analyse and compare the workload of academic staff. Seventy-five academics self-reported on their workload by completing the workload measuring…

  1. Attitudes of College Graduates, Faculty, and Human Resource Managers Regarding the Importance of Skills Acquired in College and Needed for Job Performance and Career Advancement Potential in the Retail Sector

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Heimler, Ronald

    2010-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to empirically examine college graduate, faculty, and human resource manager descriptions of needed, received, and further training in eight employability dimensions of literacy and numeracy, critical thinking, management, leadership, interpersonal, information technology, systems thinking skills, and work ethic…

  2. Faculty-development activity to promote effective communication between instructors and students.

    PubMed

    Notzer, Netta; Abramovitz, Ruth

    2010-06-01

    Educators claim that conflicts and teacher-student miscommunications interfere in achieving optimal learning outcomes. Conflicts arise when clinical instructors communicate in a patronising fashion, expressing values that are not those of their medical students. This paper presents our approach of coping with such conflicts. It is based on the notion that language is comprised of developmental levels. The objective is to switch the instructor's lower level of language from an uncontrolled reaction to a high level of efficient communication. During our faculty-development workshops, we piloted sessions consisting of vignettes depicting instructor-student conflicts. The workshop participants were asked to react and discuss questions on their feelings in similar conflicts, and their immediate speech reaction to students. The workshop's facilitator pointed out that there was no one right solution. She singled out the reaction that takes into account the student's personality, avoiding imposing solutions. The feedback on these sessions was very favourable, indicating a high level of satisfaction. The positive feedback is very encouraging. We believe that our workshops amplify the desired effective instructor-student communication, and suggest that the success of this intervention is partly achieved by selecting problematic issues of communication, and adjusting them to the current needs of our faculty members. In order to reproduce our approach, we suggest that other institutions should define their own values and communication code. We recommend them to use the same technique of intervention among a small group in an empowering atmosphere of discussion, using their own situations. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2010.

  3. Signed language and human action processing: evidence for functional constraints on the human mirror-neuron system.

    PubMed

    Corina, David P; Knapp, Heather Patterson

    2008-12-01

    In the quest to further understand the neural underpinning of human communication, researchers have turned to studies of naturally occurring signed languages used in Deaf communities. The comparison of the commonalities and differences between spoken and signed languages provides an opportunity to determine core neural systems responsible for linguistic communication independent of the modality in which a language is expressed. The present article examines such studies, and in addition asks what we can learn about human languages by contrasting formal visual-gestural linguistic systems (signed languages) with more general human action perception. To understand visual language perception, it is important to distinguish the demands of general human motion processing from the highly task-dependent demands associated with extracting linguistic meaning from arbitrary, conventionalized gestures. This endeavor is particularly important because theorists have suggested close homologies between perception and production of actions and functions of human language and social communication. We review recent behavioral, functional imaging, and neuropsychological studies that explore dissociations between the processing of human actions and signed languages. These data suggest incomplete overlap between the mirror-neuron systems proposed to mediate human action and language.

  4. Evaluating a Medical School's Climate for Women's Success: Outcomes for Faculty Recruitment, Retention, and Promotion

    PubMed Central

    Li, Yueju; Beckett, Laurel A.; Howell, Lydia Pleotis

    2017-01-01

    Abstract Objective: Women are under-represented in academia. Causative factors include challenges of career–family integration. We evaluated factors reflecting institutional culture (promotion, retention, hiring, and biasing language in promotion letters) as part of an intervention to help shift culture and raise awareness of flexibility policies at the University of California, Davis (UCD). Materials and Methods: Data on faculty use of family-friendly policies were obtained at baseline, and surveys for policy awareness were conducted pre(2010)/post(2013) an NIH-funded study educational intervention. Data on hires, separations, and promotions were obtained pre(2007–2009, 2234 person-year data points)/post(2010–2012, 2384 person-year data points) intervention and compared by logistic regression and for gender differences. Department promotion letters (53) were also analyzed for biasing language. Results: Policy use was overall low, highest for female assistant professors, and for maternity leave. Awareness significantly increased for all policies postintervention. Promotions decreased, likely because of increases in advancement deferrals or tenure clock extensions. Pre/postintervention, female and male hires were near parity for assistant professors, but female hires were substantially lower than males for associate (54% less likely, p = 0.03) and full professors (70% less likely, p = 0.002). Once hired, women were no more likely to separate than men. Fewer associate/full professors separated than assistant professors (p = 0.002, p < 0.001, respectively), regardless of gender. Language in promotion letters was not gender biased. Conclusions: We demonstrate a shift at UCD toward a culture of work–life flexibility, an environment in which letters of recommendation show very few biased descriptions, and in which assistant professor hiring is gender equitable. At the same time, a decrease in number of faculty members applying for promotion and an imbalance of men over women at senior hires independent of policy awareness may challenge the assumption that family-friendly policies, while promoting flexibility, also have a positive impact on professional advancement. PMID:28170291

  5. Evaluating a Medical School's Climate for Women's Success: Outcomes for Faculty Recruitment, Retention, and Promotion.

    PubMed

    Villablanca, Amparo C; Li, Yueju; Beckett, Laurel A; Howell, Lydia Pleotis

    2017-05-01

    Women are under-represented in academia. Causative factors include challenges of career-family integration. We evaluated factors reflecting institutional culture (promotion, retention, hiring, and biasing language in promotion letters) as part of an intervention to help shift culture and raise awareness of flexibility policies at the University of California, Davis (UCD). Data on faculty use of family-friendly policies were obtained at baseline, and surveys for policy awareness were conducted pre(2010)/post(2013) an NIH-funded study educational intervention. Data on hires, separations, and promotions were obtained pre(2007-2009, 2234 person-year data points)/post(2010-2012, 2384 person-year data points) intervention and compared by logistic regression and for gender differences. Department promotion letters (53) were also analyzed for biasing language. Policy use was overall low, highest for female assistant professors, and for maternity leave. Awareness significantly increased for all policies postintervention. Promotions decreased, likely because of increases in advancement deferrals or tenure clock extensions. Pre/postintervention, female and male hires were near parity for assistant professors, but female hires were substantially lower than males for associate (54% less likely, p = 0.03) and full professors (70% less likely, p = 0.002). Once hired, women were no more likely to separate than men. Fewer associate/full professors separated than assistant professors (p = 0.002, p < 0.001, respectively), regardless of gender. Language in promotion letters was not gender biased. We demonstrate a shift at UCD toward a culture of work-life flexibility, an environment in which letters of recommendation show very few biased descriptions, and in which assistant professor hiring is gender equitable. At the same time, a decrease in number of faculty members applying for promotion and an imbalance of men over women at senior hires independent of policy awareness may challenge the assumption that family-friendly policies, while promoting flexibility, also have a positive impact on professional advancement.

  6. Culture and biology in the origins of linguistic structure.

    PubMed

    Kirby, Simon

    2017-02-01

    Language is systematically structured at all levels of description, arguably setting it apart from all other instances of communication in nature. In this article, I survey work over the last 20 years that emphasises the contributions of individual learning, cultural transmission, and biological evolution to explaining the structural design features of language. These 3 complex adaptive systems exist in a network of interactions: individual learning biases shape the dynamics of cultural evolution; universal features of linguistic structure arise from this cultural process and form the ultimate linguistic phenotype; the nature of this phenotype affects the fitness landscape for the biological evolution of the language faculty; and in turn this determines individuals' learning bias. Using a combination of computational simulation, laboratory experiments, and comparison with real-world cases of language emergence, I show that linguistic structure emerges as a natural outcome of cultural evolution once certain minimal biological requirements are in place.

  7. The use of interpreters in medical settings and forensic medical examinations in Australia: the relationship between medicine and linguistics.

    PubMed

    Schreiber, Jason R; Odell, Morris S

    2014-07-01

    Medical examinations are dependent on combining communication with professional competence. In the development of a global multicultural community with the use of multiple languages, doctors have become increasingly dependent on language facilitation such as interpreting and translation. Despite professional studies, the use of language facilitation with its associated problems has not been fully explored in graduate and post-graduate medical and forensic medical training. There may still be some lack of reciprocal understanding between the medical and linguistic fields, their ethics, obligations and limits although both fields and their ethical frameworks are closer related than might be expected. This article is a discussion that aims at providing a basic understanding of guidelines as to the origin and appropriate use of language interpretation in medical and forensic medical examinations. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.

  8. In silico Evolutionary Developmental Neurobiology and the Origin of Natural Language

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Szathmáry, Eörs; Szathmáry, Zoltán; Ittzés, Péter; Orbaán, Geroő; Zachár, István; Huszár, Ferenc; Fedor, Anna; Varga, Máté; Számadó, Szabolcs

    It is justified to assume that part of our genetic endowment contributes to our language skills, yet it is impossible to tell at this moment exactly how genes affect the language faculty. We complement experimental biological studies by an in silico approach in that we simulate the evolution of neuronal networks under selection for language-related skills. At the heart of this project is the Evolutionary Neurogenetic Algorithm (ENGA) that is deliberately biomimetic. The design of the system was inspired by important biological phenomena such as brain ontogenesis, neuron morphologies, and indirect genetic encoding. Neuronal networks were selected and were allowed to reproduce as a function of their performance in the given task. The selected neuronal networks in all scenarios were able to solve the communication problem they had to face. The most striking feature of the model is that it works with highly indirect genetic encoding--just as brains do.

  9. [The age of formation of Czech clinical medicine].

    PubMed

    Sváb, J

    2002-11-22

    Era of Emperor Francis Joseph I is said to be a golden age for the Czech nation. It can be found in numerous panegyric articles to any jubilee of the emperor's rule. What was formally dictated by respect brought by education and by the system of the Greek and Roman tradition adopted in Austria in Middle Ages, seams to be valid today as most of the contemporary technical and economical progress roots within those days. The Czech cultures namely music and art reached international acknowledgement. Though with difficulties, Czech achieved in education and in science as a full-fledged language. After the year 1848 an average citizen was entitled to such freedom as never before. Technical, economical and cultural progress enabled real ascent of the Czech society and its social differentiation. In sixties, after the Austria-Hungary Alignment, Hapsburg government undertook no serious restrains. Such development was nothing unusual. Similar one underwent after the period of storms all European societies from south to north and form west to east. They brought ideas of the French revolution and years 1848/1849 are therefore called "the spring of European nations". In all countries where revolutionary ideas were represented and various countermeasures were accepted, governments were forced to accept temporary arrangements (in Austrian monarchy it was the promise of constitution, language compromise etc.). Nevertheless, in the second half of the 19th century the most important condition for further revival was the long period of peace and stability of international relations. The internal stability of the Austrian monarchy was achieved for long time by the Austria-Hungary Alignment in 1867. After the lost battle at Hradec Kralove in summer 1866 it became clear that contemporary centralistic organization of the state, balancing between absolutism and constitutionalism is not further tenable. Years long pressure of patriotic forces in the parliament brought about division of the Charles-Ferdinand University. Important role in the partition of the Czech Medical Faculty from the German one had the foundation of the Czech Medical Society and the Czech Medical Journal in 1862 patronaged by professors Purkynĕ, Eiselt, Grégr and others. That was the platform for the conception of the Czech medical terminology. Partition of faculties was decided by the law, which was accepted at February 28, 1882. The Czech Medical Faculty was opened only at 1883 because Emperor resolved that professors themselves had to decide to either faculty their clinics would belong. Only professor Eiselt with the First clinic of internal medicine, Weiss with the clinic of surgery and Streng with clinic of obstetrics were assigned to the Czech faculty. Till the official opening on October 15, 1882 all other departments and clinics had to be organized. Though Professor Vilem Weiss as the head of the department and dean of the faculty had his opening Czech lecture already on April 28, 1882, due to material and personal reasons the Czech Medical Faculty was opened only one year later than Faculties of law and philosophy. Most of the eminent members of the Medical faculty remained at the German faculty. However, having higher number of students the Czech faculty became larger and was attended by students from the whole Slavonic world.

  10. Integrating Sustainability into the Curriculum: Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pushnik, J.

    2012-12-01

    The next generation will confront an increased number of global issues that interface the complexities of socioeconomic perspectives, environmental stability, poverty and development. Recently California State University Chico undertook a general education reform, providing a unique opportunity to craft a general education pathway to prepare students for these challenges by focusing a curriculum on sustainability. The Sustainability Pathway emphasizes a system thinking approach to help students understand and be able to address a set of problems involving the biosphere processes, human institutions and the economic vitality. The curriculum intentionally integrates courses from across the disciplines of natural sciences, social sciences, agriculture, engineering, economics, arts and humanities into a central focused theme of sustainability. The diverse backgrounds and academic focus of the participating faculty has necessitate the development of a common language and a cohesion within the curriculum. To address these needs a faculty learning community (FLC) was established to build on a common set of case studies. Three regional environmental water related issues were selected that had demonstrable socioeconomic, equity/ethical dimensions and environmental consequences. These case studies are Klamath River basin in northern California, the Bay-Delta project in the central part of the state and the Sultan Sea in southern California. Members of the FLC has contributed a perspective from their academic discipline which includes proposed reading lists, web based resources and PowerPoint presentations which are housed in common web- based resource repository. The pedagogical rational is to create linkages and cohesion among the courses in the curriculum by iteratively examining these case studies as basis for development of a multidisciplinary perspective as students progress through their general education.

  11. Emotional Self-Efficacy among a Sample of Faculty Members and Its Relation to Gender (Male/Female), Experience, Qualification, and Specialization

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Abdel-Hadi, Samer A.

    2017-01-01

    The present study aimed to identify the level of emotional self-efficacy among a sample of faculty members who speak Arabic at the Abu Dhabi University. The study sample consisted of 99 faculty members Ph.D. and master's holders from scientific, social and education and management and humanities disciplines in University branches: Abu Dhabi and…

  12. Relationships between Work and Life away from Work among University Faculty: Gender and Rank Effects.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sorcinelli, Mary Deane; Near, Janet P.

    Spillover between work and life away from work was studied with 100 college faculty, who lived in a small college town, where work and life outside of work appear closely bound. The effects of gender and academic rank on the incidence of spillover between work and nonwork were assessed. Faculty from humanities and natural sciences departments and…

  13. New England Faculty and College Students Differ in Their Views About Evolution, Creationism, Intelligent Design, and Religiosity

    PubMed Central

    Paz-y-Miño C, Guillermo

    2016-01-01

    Public acceptance of evolution in Northeastern U.S. is the highest nationwide, only 59%. Here, we compare perspectives about evolution, creationism, intelligent design (ID), and religiosity between highly educated New England faculty (n=244; 90% Ph.D. holders in 40 disciplines at 35 colleges/universities) and college students from public secular (n=161), private secular (n=298), and religious (n=185) institutions: 94/3% of the faculty vs. 64/14% of the students admitted to accepting evolution openly and/or privately, and 82/18% of the faculty vs. 58/42% of the students thought that evolution is definitely true or probably true, respectively. Only 3% of the faculty vs. 23% of the students thought that evolution and creationism are in harmony. Although 92% of faculty and students thought that evolution relies on common ancestry, one in every four faculty and one in every three students did not know that humans are apes; 15% of the faculty vs. 34% of the students believed, incorrectly, that the origin of the human mind cannot be explained by evolution, and 30% of the faculty vs. 72% of the students was Lamarckian (believed in inheritance of acquired traits). Notably, 91% of the faculty was very concerned (64%) or somehow concerned (27%) about the controversy evolution vs creationism vs ID and its implications for science education: 96% of the faculty vs. 72% of the students supported the exclusive teaching of evolution while 4% of the faculty vs. 28% of the students favored equal time to evolution, creationism and ID; 92% of the faculty vs. 52% of the students perceived ID as not scientific and proposed to counter evolution or as doctrine consistent with creationism. Although ≈30% of both faculty and students considered religion to be very important in their lives, and ≈20% admitted to praying daily, the faculty was less religious (Religiosity Index faculty=0.5 and students=0.75) and, as expected, more knowledgeable about science (Science Index faculty=2.27 and students=1.60) and evolution (Evolution Index faculty=2.48 and students=1.65) than the students. Because attitudes toward evolution correlate (1) positively with understanding of science/evolution and (2) negatively with religiosity/political ideology, we conclude that science education combined with vigorous public debate should suffice to increase acceptance of naturalistic rationalism and decrease the negative impact of creationism and ID on society’s evolution literacy. PMID:26962385

  14. New England Faculty and College Students Differ in Their Views About Evolution, Creationism, Intelligent Design, and Religiosity.

    PubMed

    Paz-Y-Miño C, Guillermo; Espinosa, Avelina

    2011-06-01

    Public acceptance of evolution in Northeastern U.S. is the highest nationwide, only 59%. Here, we compare perspectives about evolution, creationism, intelligent design (ID), and religiosity between highly educated New England faculty ( n =244; 90% Ph.D. holders in 40 disciplines at 35 colleges/universities) and college students from public secular ( n =161), private secular ( n =298), and religious ( n =185) institutions: 94/3% of the faculty vs. 64/14% of the students admitted to accepting evolution openly and/or privately, and 82/18% of the faculty vs. 58/42% of the students thought that evolution is definitely true or probably true, respectively. Only 3% of the faculty vs. 23% of the students thought that evolution and creationism are in harmony. Although 92% of faculty and students thought that evolution relies on common ancestry, one in every four faculty and one in every three students did not know that humans are apes; 15% of the faculty vs. 34% of the students believed, incorrectly, that the origin of the human mind cannot be explained by evolution, and 30% of the faculty vs. 72% of the students was Lamarckian (believed in inheritance of acquired traits). Notably, 91% of the faculty was very concerned (64%) or somehow concerned (27%) about the controversy evolution vs creationism vs ID and its implications for science education: 96% of the faculty vs. 72% of the students supported the exclusive teaching of evolution while 4% of the faculty vs. 28% of the students favored equal time to evolution, creationism and ID; 92% of the faculty vs. 52% of the students perceived ID as not scientific and proposed to counter evolution or as doctrine consistent with creationism. Although ≈30% of both faculty and students considered religion to be very important in their lives, and ≈20% admitted to praying daily, the faculty was less religious ( Religiosity Index faculty=0.5 and students=0.75) and, as expected, more knowledgeable about science ( Science Index faculty=2.27 and students=1.60) and evolution ( Evolution Index faculty=2.48 and students=1.65) than the students. Because attitudes toward evolution correlate (1) positively with understanding of science/evolution and (2) negatively with religiosity/political ideology, we conclude that science education combined with vigorous public debate should suffice to increase acceptance of naturalistic rationalism and decrease the negative impact of creationism and ID on society's evolution literacy.

  15. Language evolution and human-computer interaction

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Grudin, Jonathan; Norman, Donald A.

    1991-01-01

    Many of the issues that confront designers of interactive computer systems also appear in natural language evolution. Natural languages and human-computer interfaces share as their primary mission the support of extended 'dialogues' between responsive entities. Because in each case one participant is a human being, some of the pressures operating on natural languages, causing them to evolve in order to better support such dialogue, also operate on human-computer 'languages' or interfaces. This does not necessarily push interfaces in the direction of natural language - since one entity in this dialogue is not a human, this is not to be expected. Nonetheless, by discerning where the pressures that guide natural language evolution also appear in human-computer interaction, we can contribute to the design of computer systems and obtain a new perspective on natural languages.

  16. Seeing the Forest for the Trees. Penn State Faculty Club

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Progressive Architecture, 1977

    1977-01-01

    The new faculty club at Pennsylvania State University designed by Venturi and Rauch, is praised for its siting, but criticized for the institutional colors of the interior and lack of accommodation to human needs. (MLF)

  17. Properties of language networks and language systems. Comment on "Approaching human language with complex networks" by Cong and Liu

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yu, Shuiyuan; Xu, Chunshan

    2014-12-01

    Language is generally considered a defining feature of human beings, a key medium for interpersonal communication, a fundamental tool for human thinking and an important vehicle for culture transmission. For the anthropoids to evolve into human being, the emergence of linguistic system is a vital step. Then, how can language serve functions so complicated and so important? To answer this question, it is necessary to probe into a central topic in linguistics: the structure of language, which has been inevitably involved in various fields of linguistic research-the functions of languages, the evolution of languages, the typology of languages, etc.

  18. Three-Dimensional Constraints on Human Cognition as Expressed in Human Language

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Adam, Christopher C.

    2015-01-01

    Those advocating the existence of a distinct language instinct generally claim that human language is not reliant on general human cognition. However, limitations on recursive patterns in human language are universally attested, from the micro-level elements of phonology, throughout the mid-level elements of morphology and syntax, and up to the…

  19. Marshall Space Flight Center Faculty Fellowship Program

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Six, N. F. (Compiler)

    2015-01-01

    The Faculty Fellowship program was revived in the summer of 2015 at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, following a period of diminished faculty research activity here since 2006 when budget cuts in the Headquarters' Education Office required realignment. Several senior Marshall managers recognized the need to involve the Nation's academic research talent in NASA's missions and projects to the benefit of both entities. These managers invested their funds required to establish the renewed Faculty Fellowship program in 2015, a 10-week residential research involvement of 16 faculty in the laboratories and offices at Marshall. These faculty engineers and scientists worked with NASA collaborators on NASA projects, bringing new perspectives and solutions to bear. This Technical Memorandum is a compilation of the research reports of the 2015 Marshall Faculty Fellowship program, along with the Program Announcement (appendix A) and the Program Description (appendix B). The research touched on seven areas-propulsion, materials, instrumentation, fluid dynamics, human factors, control systems, and astrophysics. The propulsion studies included green propellants, gas bubble dynamics, and simulations of fluid and thermal transients. The materials investigations involved sandwich structures in composites, plug and friction stir welding, and additive manufacturing, including both strength characterization and thermosets curing in space. The instrumentation projects involved spectral interfero- metry, emissivity, and strain sensing in structures. The fluid dynamics project studied the water hammer effect. The human factors project investigated the requirements for close proximity operations in confined spaces. Another team proposed a controls system for small launch vehicles, while in astrophysics, one faculty researcher estimated the practicality of weather modification by blocking the Sun's insolation, and another found evidence in satellite data of the detection of a warm-hot intergalactic medium filament. Our goal is to continue the Faculty Fellowship effort with Center funds in succeeding summers.

  20. Idea Sharing: Using Peer Assessment to Teach How to Make Oral Summaries in English Language Classes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ivanova, Olimpiada F.

    2014-01-01

    In this "Idea Sharing" article, the author describes the techniques used when teaching oral summary making to second-year students studying Business English at the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow. The techniques are based on peer assessment, which…

  1. Who Leaves Science? The First Year Experience at York University.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Grayson, J. Paul

    This study examined student departure rates from the Faculty of Pure and Applied Science at York University in Ontario (Canada) using Tinto's (1987) model of student departure. Student records from 1992-93 were used to obtain data on grades in the final year of high school, sex, language status, and amount of student financial awards received;…

  2. Binding and Scope Dependencies with "Floating Quantifiers" in Japanese

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mukai, Emi

    2012-01-01

    The primary concern of this thesis is how we can achieve rigorous testability when we set the properties of the Computational System (hypothesized to be at the center of the language faculty) as our object of inquiry and informant judgments as a tool to construct and/or evaluate our hypotheses concerning the properties of the Computational System.…

  3. The Epistemic of Aesthetic Knowledge and Knowing: Implications for Aesthetic Education Curricula and Rational Pedagogy in Nigerian Secondary Schools

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Aghaosa, Ike P.

    2015-01-01

    Using essentially the philosophical and documentary, methodologies of language and logical analysis and deductions, analogical inference; and historical inspection of documents, the paper examined the issues and arguments involved in Aesthetics as an epistemological concept. These were in terms of aesthetic: knowledge, faculty of knowing and…

  4. Preschoolers as Authors: Literacy Learning in the Social World of the Classroom.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rowe, Deborah Wells

    A study examined how children's understanding and use of written language and graphic/constructive art are embedded in the social world of their classrooms and how they explore the potential of communication systems (specifically, what socio-psychological strategies they use). Subjects were 21 3- and 4-year-old children of faculty and staff at a…

  5. Faculty/Staff Nonrenewal and Dismissal for Cause in Institutions of Higher Education. Higher Education Administration Series.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Beckham, Joseph C.

    This monograph presents a succinct overview of the legal parameters regarding nonretention and dismissal for cause of employees of higher education institutions. The monograph is written in everyday language for the lay reader and presents a concise review of case law on the subject. An introductory chapter discusses judicial review, the…

  6. Teacher/Mentor: A Dialogue for Collaborative Learning. The Practitioner Inquiry Series.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Graham, Peg, Ed.; Hudson-Ross, Sally, Ed.; Adkins, Chandra, Ed.; McWhorter, Patti, Ed.; Stewart, Jennifer McDuffie, Ed.

    Using the subjects of language arts and English in the secondary school setting, this collection of essays should inspire the development and refinement of teacher education at all levels and in all subject areas. The essays are written in the voices of public school teachers and grounded in everyday theory and practice of faculty in public…

  7. Exploring the Factors Influencing UPM English Language Faculty Members' Adoption and Integration of Web-Based Instruction (WBI)

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sayadian, Sima; Mukundan, Jayakaran; Baki, Roselan

    2009-01-01

    Technology, if integrated effectively, has been found to influence students' academic performance, develop their higher order thinking and problem solving, improve their motivation, attitude, and interest in learning, and help them prepare for the workforce as well as address the needs of low performing, at-risk, and learning impaired students…

  8. The Effort to Increase the Students' Achievement in Poetry Mastery through Semiotic Method

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dirgeyasa, I Wy.

    2017-01-01

    The obejectives of this research are to know the improvement of the students' achievement in poetry mastery and their perception regarding to the semiotic method in teaching and learning poetry in English Education Department, Languages and Art Faculty of State University of Medan. The research method used is the Classroom Action Research (CAR).…

  9. Academic Freedom and the Liberation of the Nation's Faculty

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pak, Michael S.

    2007-01-01

    In this article, the author reports that within the few decades following the creation of the National Education Association (NEA), a new expression came into use in the English language: "academic freedom." It was in this period that the modern research university first made its appearance in the United States. Before the last third of…

  10. Developing Attitudes Scale towards German Reading: A Study on Reliability and Validity

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Arslan Çavusoglu, Ayse; Tepebasili, Fatih

    2017-01-01

    The main purpose of this study is to develop a scale for German teacher candidates' attitude towards the German reading. The scale was applied to 156 students who were enrolled in the Foreign Language Teaching Department of the Ahmet Kelesoglu Education Faculty, Necmettin Erbakan University. Out of 156 students, %14.1 (n = 22) were preparation…

  11. Effect of Instruction in Story Grammar on the Narrative Writing of EFL Students.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    El-Koumy, Abdel Salam A.

    A study investigated the effects of explicit versus implicit instruction in story grammar on the narrative writing skills of English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) students at the university level. Subjects were 83 freshmen enrolled in English at the Faculty of Education at Suez Canal University (Egypt). The subjects were randomly assigned to…

  12. Learning through Service: "A Testimonio" on the Pedagogical and Scholarly Benefits of Service Projects Conducted by Teachers of Spanish

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Christoph, Nancy

    2015-01-01

    This article argues the pedagogical and scholarly benefits to Spanish language faculty who themselves conduct community-engaged service projects in Spanish-speaking communities. The author explores the term "service" as it is understood in higher education in relationship to teaching and scholarship, positing that service projects…

  13. Alleged Death Threats, a Hunger Strike, and a Department at Risk Over a Tenure Decision.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Leatherman, Courtney

    2000-01-01

    Reports on a tenure controversy within the Indiana University department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures that has involved possible death threats, a hunger strike, and controversy over the department's continued existence. For now the professor, an expert on Islamic philosophy, remains at the institution, other faculty have left, and…

  14. The Literature of Foreign Language Programs: The Road to Cultural Studies Is Not Paved with Literary History . . . Tick Tock . . . Tick Tock.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Essif, Les

    2002-01-01

    Describes a French department's efforts to free itself of course sequences organized by century, questions the value of curriculum based primarily on the past and recommends that faculty members be more open to new approaches made accessible through theater, cinema, and cultural studies. (Author/VWL)

  15. E-Learning in Business English Course--Results of the Questionnaire Survey

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kucírková, Lenka; Jarkovská, Martina

    2016-01-01

    The paper reflects the real needs and priorities within foreign language teaching at the Faculty of Economics and Management of the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CULS), which include the reduction of the lecturer's direct teaching load and the use of modern ICT technologies within e-learning courses offered to students of all forms of…

  16. Postgraduate Diploma Collaborative Assignment: Implications for ESL Students and Curriculum Design

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Grant, T.

    2008-01-01

    The commerce faculty at the University of Cape Town (UCT) offers a 1-year, postgraduate management diploma that is regarded as a mini-MBA. It appeals to a wide variety of mainly English-as-second language (ESL) students. In the past, core course diploma lecturers in marketing, tourism and leisure, enterprise management and sport management…

  17. A School Healthcare Program for Low Income Families of Very Young Children.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Joyce, Esperanza Villanueva

    This chapter is part of a book that recounts the year's work at the Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) at Texas A & M University-Corpus Christi. Rather than an "elitist" laboratory school for the children of university faculty, the dual-language ECDC is a collaboration between the Corpus Christi Independent School District and…

  18. Interview with Datin Goh Suet Lan on Business Coaching

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nimehchisalem, Vahid

    2016-01-01

    In this article the author writes of having had the pleasure of meeting Datin Goh Suet Lan and one of the key members of her team, Mr. Murali, in the Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, Universiti Putra Malaysia with three colleagues, Associate Professor Dr. Shamala Paramasivam (who initiated this meeting), Dr. Ilyana Binti Jalaluddin,…

  19. Studies in Language and Linguistics 1969-70.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ewton, Ralph W., Jr., Ed.; Ornstein, Jacob, Ed.

    The eleven essays in the present volume are by faculty members at the University of Texas at El Paso and deal generally with issues peculiar to the American Southwest. It is hoped, however, that the collection contains "enough that is of universal interest to avoid the taint of parochialism." Essays discuss (1) problems involved in teaching in…

  20. Language-Rich Approach Boosts English Learner Skills

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Education Digest: Essential Readings Condensed for Quick Review, 2011

    2011-01-01

    Four years ago, teachers at International High School in Austin, TX, thought they were doing a great job. Visitors to the school for new immigrants often praised the faculty for working with such a diverse population of students, some of whom had no prior formal education. Aida Walqui's observation was different. The director of WestEd's Quality…

  1. The decade 1989-1998 in Spanish psychology: an analysis of research in statistics, methodology, and psychometric theory.

    PubMed

    García-Pérez, M A

    2001-11-01

    This paper presents an analysis of research published in the decade 1989-1998 by Spanish faculty members in the areas of statistical methods, research methodology, and psychometric theory. Database search and direct correspondence with faculty members in Departments of Methodology across Spain rendered a list of 193 papers published in these broad areas by 82 faculty members. These and other faculty members had actually published 931 papers over the decade of analysis, but 738 of them addressed topics not appropriate for description in this report. Classification and analysis of these 193 papers revealed topics that have attracted the most interest (psychophysics, item response theory, analysis of variance, sequential analysis, and meta-analysis) as well as other topics that have received less attention (scaling, factor analysis, time series, and structural models). A significant number of papers also dealt with various methodological issues (software, algorithms, instrumentation, and techniques). A substantial part of this report is devoted to describing the issues addressed across these 193 papers--most of which are written in the Spanish language and published in Spanish journals--and some representative references are given.

  2. Humanism, the Hidden Curriculum, and Educational Reform: A Scoping Review and Thematic Analysis.

    PubMed

    Martimianakis, Maria Athina Tina; Michalec, Barret; Lam, Justin; Cartmill, Carrie; Taylor, Janelle S; Hafferty, Frederic W

    2015-11-01

    Medical educators have used the hidden curriculum concept for over three decades to make visible the effects of tacit learning, including how culture, structures, and institutions influence professional identity formation. In response to calls to see more humanistic-oriented training in medicine, the authors examined how the hidden curriculum construct has been applied in the English language medical education literature with a particular (and centering) look at its use within literature pertaining to humanism. They also explored the ends to which the hidden curriculum construct has been used in educational reform efforts (at the individual, organizational, and/or systems levels) related to nurturing and/or increasing humanism in health care. The authors conducted a scoping review and thematic analysis that draws from the tradition of critical discourse analysis. They identified 1,887 texts in the literature search, of which 200 met inclusion criteria. The analysis documents a strong preoccupation with negative effects of the hidden curriculum, particularly the moral erosion of physicians and the perceived undermining of humanistic values in health care. A conflation between professionalism and humanism was noted. Proposals for reform largely target medical students and medical school faculty, with very little consideration for how organizations, institutions, and sociopolitical relations more broadly contribute to problematic behaviors. The authors argue that there is a need to transcend conceptualizations of the hidden curriculum as antithetical to humanism and offer suggestions for future research that explores the necessity and value of humanism and the hidden curriculum in medical education and training.

  3. The Challenges of Digital Literacy in the Context of the Spanish Government Educational Policies: The Statement of the Question

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Díaz, Carmen Guillén; Quílez, Mariá Teresa Blasco

    The "(r)evolution" of the literacy concept and our duty as Languages' Teachers' Trainers at the Faculty of Education and Social Work in Valladolid's University (Spain), guides this research in progress. Our research develops in the framework of the Spanish Higher Education System, within the development of the eight key competences established by the European Council, for the Education and Training of the European citizens for lifelong learning in the knowledge society. We focus on the competences 1, 2 and 4: Communication in the mother tongue, Communication in foreign languages and Digital competence, both as essential competences in the professional language's teacher's profile and as a challenge in the Teacher's Education and Training in the Spanish government policies context.

  4. "PULS." - a blog-based online-magazine for students of medicine of the Goethe University Frankfurt.

    PubMed

    Wurche, Bettina; Klauer, Gertrud; Nürnberger, Frank

    2013-01-01

    In the context of nationwide protests 2009 also students of the faculty of medicine/dentistry at Goethe-University in Frankfurt demanded more transparency and communication. To satisfy these demands, a web 2.0-tool offered an innovative solution: A blog-based online-magazine for students and other faculty-members. The online-magazine "PULS." is realized with the share-ware blog-software (wordpress version 3.1.3) and is conceived and written by an online-journalist. "PULS." is available from https://newsmagazin.puls.med.uni-frankfurt.de/wp/. The articles are generated from own investigations and from ideas of different groups of the faculty- deanship, students and lecturers. A user-analysis is conducted with the open-source software Piwik and considers the data security. Additionally, every year an anonymous online-user-survey (Survey Monkey) is conducted. "PULS." is continuously online since 14.02.2010 and has published 806 articles (state: 27.11.2012) and has about 2400 readers monthly. The content focuses on the needs of Frankfurt medical students. The close cooperation with different groups of the faculty - deanship, students and lecturers - furthermore guarantees themes relevant to the academic faculty. "PULS." flanks complex projects and decisions with background-information and communicates them understandable. The user-evaluation shows a growing number of readers and a high acceptance for the online-magazine, its themes and its style. The web 2.0-tool "Blog" and the web-specific language comply with media habits of the main target group, the students of the faculty medicine/dentistry. Thus, "PULS." has proven as a suitable and strategic instrument. It pushes towards a higher transparency, more communication and a stronger identification of the students with their faculty.

  5. Universal Entropy of Word Ordering Across Linguistic Families

    PubMed Central

    Montemurro, Marcelo A.; Zanette, Damián H.

    2011-01-01

    Background The language faculty is probably the most distinctive feature of our species, and endows us with a unique ability to exchange highly structured information. In written language, information is encoded by the concatenation of basic symbols under grammatical and semantic constraints. As is also the case in other natural information carriers, the resulting symbolic sequences show a delicate balance between order and disorder. That balance is determined by the interplay between the diversity of symbols and by their specific ordering in the sequences. Here we used entropy to quantify the contribution of different organizational levels to the overall statistical structure of language. Methodology/Principal Findings We computed a relative entropy measure to quantify the degree of ordering in word sequences from languages belonging to several linguistic families. While a direct estimation of the overall entropy of language yielded values that varied for the different families considered, the relative entropy quantifying word ordering presented an almost constant value for all those families. Conclusions/Significance Our results indicate that despite the differences in the structure and vocabulary of the languages analyzed, the impact of word ordering in the structure of language is a statistical linguistic universal. PMID:21603637

  6. Q&A: What is human language, when did it evolve and why should we care?

    PubMed

    Pagel, Mark

    2017-07-24

    Human language is unique among all forms of animal communication. It is unlikely that any other species, including our close genetic cousins the Neanderthals, ever had language, and so-called sign 'language' in Great Apes is nothing like human language. Language evolution shares many features with biological evolution, and this has made it useful for tracing recent human history and for studying how culture evolves among groups of people with related languages. A case can be made that language has played a more important role in our species' recent (circa last 200,000 years) evolution than have our genes.

  7. The Place of Foreign Languages in a Curriculum for Liberal Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Moravcsik, Julius; Juilland, Alphonse

    1977-01-01

    The study of foreign languages in the liberal arts curriculum is defended. Foreign languages reveal the rules characterizing cognitive human activities; they help us to understand both common bonds of humanity and varieties of human behavior. Language study should be central to humanities study. (CHK)

  8. Language Networks as Models of Cognition: Understanding Cognition through Language

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Beckage, Nicole M.; Colunga, Eliana

    Language is inherently cognitive and distinctly human. Separating the object of language from the human mind that processes and creates language fails to capture the full language system. Linguistics traditionally has focused on the study of language as a static representation, removed from the human mind. Network analysis has traditionally been focused on the properties and structure that emerge from network representations. Both disciplines could gain from looking at language as a cognitive process. In contrast, psycholinguistic research has focused on the process of language without committing to a representation. However, by considering language networks as approximations of the cognitive system we can take the strength of each of these approaches to study human performance and cognition as related to language. This paper reviews research showcasing the contributions of network science to the study of language. Specifically, we focus on the interplay of cognition and language as captured by a network representation. To this end, we review different types of language network representations before considering the influence of global level network features. We continue by considering human performance in relation to network structure and conclude with theoretical network models that offer potential and testable explanations of cognitive and linguistic phenomena.

  9. Triadic (ecological, neural, cognitive) niche construction: a scenario of human brain evolution extrapolating tool use and language from the control of reaching actions

    PubMed Central

    Iriki, Atsushi; Taoka, Miki

    2012-01-01

    Hominin evolution has involved a continuous process of addition of new kinds of cognitive capacity, including those relating to manufacture and use of tools and to the establishment of linguistic faculties. The dramatic expansion of the brain that accompanied additions of new functional areas would have supported such continuous evolution. Extended brain functions would have driven rapid and drastic changes in the hominin ecological niche, which in turn demanded further brain resources to adapt to it. In this way, humans have constructed a novel niche in each of the ecological, cognitive and neural domains, whose interactions accelerated their individual evolution through a process of triadic niche construction. Human higher cognitive activity can therefore be viewed holistically as one component in a terrestrial ecosystem. The brain's functional characteristics seem to play a key role in this triadic interaction. We advance a speculative argument about the origins of its neurobiological mechanisms, as an extension (with wider scope) of the evolutionary principles of adaptive function in the animal nervous system. The brain mechanisms that subserve tool use may bridge the gap between gesture and language—the site of such integration seems to be the parietal and extending opercular cortices. PMID:22106423

  10. Unity and diversity in human language

    PubMed Central

    Fitch, W. Tecumseh

    2011-01-01

    Human language is both highly diverse—different languages have different ways of achieving the same functional goals—and easily learnable. Any language allows its users to express virtually any thought they can conceptualize. These traits render human language unique in the biological world. Understanding the biological basis of language is thus both extremely challenging and fundamentally interesting. I review the literature on linguistic diversity and language universals, suggesting that an adequate notion of ‘formal universals’ provides a promising way to understand the facts of language acquisition, offering order in the face of the diversity of human languages. Formal universals are cross-linguistic generalizations, often of an abstract or implicational nature. They derive from cognitive capacities to perceive and process particular types of structures and biological constraints upon integration of the multiple systems involved in language. Such formal universals can be understood on the model of a general solution to a set of differential equations; each language is one particular solution. An explicit formal conception of human language that embraces both considerable diversity and underlying biological unity is possible, and fully compatible with modern evolutionary theory. PMID:21199842

  11. About Politeness, Face, and Feedback: Exploring Resident and Faculty Perceptions of How Institutional Feedback Culture Influences Feedback Practices.

    PubMed

    Ramani, Subha; Könings, Karen D; Mann, Karen V; Pisarski, Emily E; van der Vleuten, Cees P M

    2018-03-06

    To explore resident and faculty perspectives on what constitutes feedback culture, their perceptions of how institutional feedback culture (including politeness concepts) might influence the quality and impact of feedback, feedback seeking, receptivity, and readiness to engage in bidirectional feedback. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, five focus group discussions with internal medicine residents, three focus group discussions with general medicine faculty, and eight individual interviews with subspecialist faculty were conducted at Brigham and Women's Hospital between April and December 2016. Discussions and interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim; concurrent data collection and analysis were performed using the constant comparative approach. Analysis was considered through the lens of politeness theory and organizational culture. Twenty-nine residents and twenty-two general medicine faculty participated in focus group discussions, and eight subspecialty faculty participated in interviews. The institutional feedback culture was described by participants as: (1) a culture of politeness, in which language potentially damaging to residents' self-esteem was discouraged, and (2) a culture of excellence, in which the institution's outstanding reputation and pedigree of trainees inhibited constructive feedback. Three key themes situated within this broader cultural context were discovered: normalizing constructive feedback to promote a culture of growth, overcoming the mental block to feedback seeking, and hierarchical culture impeding bidirectional feedback. An institutional feedback culture of excellence and politeness may impede honest, meaningful feedback and may impact feedback seeking, receptivity, and bidirectional feedback exchanges. It is essential to understand the institutional feedback culture before it can be successfully changed.

  12. Primary language and cultural background as factors in resident burnout in medical specialties: a study in a bilingual US city.

    PubMed

    Afzal, Khalid I; Khan, Farhan M; Mulla, Zuber; Akins, Ralista; Ledger, Elizabeth; Giordano, Frank L

    2010-07-01

    The aim of this study was to identify the degree of burnout among resident physicians enrolled in seven postgraduate training programs at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC), Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, El Paso, Texas, as it related to residents' age, gender, marital status, number of hours worked per week, primary language, race/ethnicity, and cultural background. : The Maslach Burnout Inventory Human Service Survey (MBI) was administered to measure the level of burnout according to the prevalence of emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP), and reduced personal accomplishment (PA). : Eighty-one percent of the residents at TTUHSC participated in the study. Residents raised in the United States or Canada comprised 28% and 35% of the study, and all reported English as their primary language. The EE scale was significant for obstetrics/gynecology (OB/GYN) residents (prevalence odds ratio [POR] = 13.55, P = 0.02) and psychiatry (PSY) residents (POR = 6.50, P = 0.03). Emergency medicine (EM) residents (POR = 23.35, P = 0.002), OB/GYN (POR = 10.89, P = 0.02), and general surgery (GS) (POR = 6.24, P = 0.03) residents had high DP. Internal medicine (IM) residents (primarily Spanish-speaking) reported significantly low EE (POR = 0.22, P = 0.03) and PA (POR = 0.09, P = 0.001) scores. Residents from the United States or Canada who reported English as their primary language and noted their race as white, had high EE (POR = 3.06, P = 0.03; POR = 5.61, P = 0.0001; POR = 2.91, P = 0.004), DP (POR = 3.19, P = 0.02; POR = 8.34, P < or = 0.0001; POR = 4.70, P < or = 0.0001) and PA (POR = 2.61, P = 0.02; POR = 2.35, P = 0.05, POR 0.29, P = 0.3) scores. Using valid measures, this pilot study identified a statistically significant relationship between burnout and residents' race/ethnicity, primary language, and cultural background. Larger studies with similar focus would be necessary to generalize these findings. At-risk residents in bilingual locations should be provided with cultural awareness workshops, language assistance programs, as well as senior resident and faculty mentors.

  13. The implementation of clay modeling and rat dissection into the human anatomy and physiology curriculum of a large urban community college.

    PubMed

    Haspel, Carol; Motoike, Howard K; Lenchner, Erez

    2014-01-01

    After a considerable amount of research and experimentation, cat dissection was replaced with rat dissection and clay modeling in the human anatomy and physiology laboratory curricula at La Guardia Community College (LAGCC), a large urban community college of the City University of New York (CUNY). This article describes the challenges faculty overcame and the techniques used to solve them. Methods involved were: developing a laboratory manual in conjunction with the publisher, holding training sessions for faculty and staff, the development of instructional outlines for students and lesson plans for faculty, the installation of storage facilities to hold mannequins instead of cat specimens, and designing mannequin clean-up techniques that could be used by more than one thousand students each semester. The effectiveness of these curricular changes was assessed by examining student muscle practical examination grades and the responses of faculty and students to questionnaires. The results demonstrated that the majority of faculty felt prepared to teach using clay modeling and believed the activity was effective in presenting lesson content. Students undertaking clay modeling had significantly higher muscle practical examination grades than students undertaking cat dissection, and the majority of students believed that clay modeling was an effective technique to learn human skeletal, respiratory, and cardiovascular anatomy, which included the names and locations of blood vessels. Furthermore, the majority of students felt that rat dissection helped them learn nervous, digestive, urinary, and reproductive system anatomy. Faculty experience at LAGCC may serve as a resource to other academic institutions developing new curricula for large, on-going courses. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.

  14. Extending network approach to language dynamics and human cognition. Comment on "Approaching human language with complex networks" by Cong and Liu

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gong, Tao; Shuai, Lan; Wu, Yicheng

    2014-12-01

    By analyzing complex networks constructed from authentic language data, Cong and Liu [1] advance linguistics research into the big data era. The network approach has revealed many intrinsic generalities and crucial differences at both the macro and micro scales between human languages. The axiom behind this research is that language is a complex adaptive system [2]. Although many lexical, semantic, or syntactic features have been discovered by means of analyzing the static and dynamic linguistic networks of world languages, available network-based language studies have not explicitly addressed the evolutionary dynamics of language systems and the correlations between language and human cognition. This commentary aims to provide some insights on how to use the network approach to study these issues.

  15. Learning to See with a Third Eye: Working to Address Inequity Effectively

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bambino, Debbie

    2005-01-01

    A few years ago the National School Reform Faculty (NSRF) revised its mission statement to include language about working to "foster educational and social equity." The revision makes sense to the author as a graduate student in urban education and a former Philadelphia middle school teacher, as well as in her role as a facilitator of Critical…

  16. Perspectives on Community College ESL, Volume 1: Pedagogy, Programs, Curricula, and Assessment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Spaventa, Marilyn, Ed.; Machado, Craig, Ed.

    2006-01-01

    English as a second language (ESL) programs in community colleges are as diverse in the models they follow as the students they serve. This volume provides a detailed look at how faculty and administrators are tailoring their ESL programs to best serve the needs of their students and the missions of their institutions. The authors of the thirteen…

  17. From Crisis to Opportunity: French and Foreign Language Studies in the Twenty-First Century.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Spencer, Samia I.

    2003-01-01

    In response to falling enrollments in French and a diminishing pool of high school teachers, faculty at Auburn University tried to turn the tide through a series of curricular and advocacy initiatives. They introduced new French majors in education and in international trade and a collaborative major with the Consumer Affairs Department in French…

  18. Impact of Gender and Conference Size on Conference Preferences--Employing Natural Language Processing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Eckhaus, Eyal; Davidovitch, Nitza

    2018-01-01

    This pilot study focuses on the impact of academic conferences from a gender-based perspective. What motivates faculty members to attend conferences? Which conferences do they choose? Can differences be found between men and women in their attitude to the effect of the conference and its contribution to their academic work, in light of many…

  19. An Introduction to the Consumer's Society. An Instruction Manual with Resources for Teaching Limited-English Speaking Students. Consumer Education, Nutrition, Parenting.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Antonelli, Sharon

    These three instruction manuals are designed as aids for faculty and staff teaching consumer education, nutrition, and parenting. They include resources for teaching limited English speaking students. A 17-page Vocational English as a Second Language (VESL) annotated bibliography precedes the instruction manuals. Each manual consists of 18 units.…

  20. Knowledge Sharing in a Learning Resource Centre by Way of a Metro Map Metaphor.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bang, Tove

    This paper presents a Knowledge Sharing project at the Aarhus School of Business (Denmark). As a result of a close cooperation between the Faculty of Modern Languages and the Library of the Aarhus School of Business, a Learning Resource Centre (LRC) is being established. The LRC serves as an exploratorium for the development and testing of new…

  1. The Comparison of the Impact of Storytelling and Digital Storytelling Assignments on Students' Motivations for Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kasami, Naoko

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to explore how a Digital StoryTelling (DST) assignment affected and changed students' motivations for learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in comparison with a StoryTelling (ST) assignment. A course entitled "Information English" was held for Japanese university students at a faculty of information…

  2. Book Choices for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Parents: Strategies for Sharing Books in Bilingual Homes.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ratliff, Joanne L.; Montague, Nicole S.

    This chapter is part of a book that recounts the year's work at the Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) at Texas A & M University-Corpus Christi. Rather than an "elitist" laboratory school for the children of university faculty, the dual-language ECDC is a collaboration between the Corpus Christi Independent School District and…

  3. "A Chimera of Sorts": Rethinking Educational Technology Grant Programs, Courseware Innovation, and the Language of Educational Change

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wolff, William I.

    2008-01-01

    How do we know when an educational organization, process, or courseware tool is "innovative"? How do we define the processes that encourage change or the ways in which faculty "develop" new courseware "innovations"? The terms "innovation", "change", and "development" have been overused in so many contexts that they now seem to have lost their…

  4. A Model of Reading Teaching for University EFL Students: Need Analysis and Model Design

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hamra, Arifuddin; Syatriana, Eny

    2012-01-01

    This study designed a model of teaching reading for university EFL students based on the English curriculum at the Faculty of Languages and Literature and the concept of the team-based learning in order to improve the reading comprehension of the students. What kind of teaching model can help students to improve their reading comprehension? The…

  5. The Richness of Language and the Poverty of Part-Timers: Impact and Invisibility.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wallace, M. Elizabeth

    The difficulties experienced by part-time faculty members are discussed, and some benefits of part-time teaching are identified. Among the problems faced by part-time staff are per-course salaries, lack of college-paid benefits, job insecurity, and invisibility on campus. If the part-time teaching position is a primary source of income and career…

  6. Computer Self-Efficacy, Computer Anxiety, and Attitudes toward the Internet: A Study among Undergraduates in Unimas

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sam, Hong Kian; Othman, Abang Ekhsan Abang; Nordin, Zaimuarifuddin Shukri

    2005-01-01

    Eighty-one female and sixty-seven male undergraduates at a Malaysian university, from seven faculties and a Center for Language Studies completed a Computer Self-Efficacy Scale, Computer Anxiety Scale, and an Attitudes toward the Internet Scale and give information about their use of the Internet. This survey research investigated undergraduates'…

  7. The Comparison of Students' Use of Metacognitive Reading Strategies between Reading in Bahasa Indonesia and in English

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Vianty, Machdalena

    2007-01-01

    This article reports an investigation into the students' use of metacognitive reading strategies that involve the use of analytic and pragmatic reading strategies when reading in the two languages: English and Bahasa Indonesia. One-hundred and one students from the English Study Program within the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education of…

  8. Working with Lecturers and Part-Time Faculty: A Case Study of Russian in the National Capital Area.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Robin, Richard

    This chapter examines the specific issues and problems of hiring part-time instructors for foreign language courses. Specifically, it discusses the part-time situation for teaching Russian in the Washington, DC area. It looks first at the major factors involved in hiring part-timers, particularly compared to graduate teaching assistants, commonly…

  9. Cyber-Communic@tion Etiquette: The Interplay between Social Distance, Gender and Discursive Features of Student-Faculty Email Interactions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Boshrabadi, Abbas Mehrabi; Sarabi, Sepideh Bataghva

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: Research has shown that the discursive patterns students use in their email interactions with their teachers are not linguistically and socio-culturally appropriate. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to try to explore how socio-cultural conventions influence the Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' choices of…

  10. Assessing School Readiness for a Practice Arrangement Using Decision Tree Methodology.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Barger, Sara E.

    1998-01-01

    Questions in a decision-tree address mission, faculty interest, administrative support, and practice plan as a way of assessing arrangements for nursing faculty's clinical practice. Decisions should be based on congruence between the human resource allocation and the reward systems. (SK)

  11. Giraffe, a Computer Assisted Instruction Programme.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Boekhorst, Albert K.; Groot, Tineke

    In 1989 a two year collaborative project, CAI (Computer Assisted Instruction) & Humanities, was initiated between the Faculty of Arts and IBM Netherlands during which General Information Retrieval All Faculties For Bibliographic Education (GIRAFFE), a program for the retrieval of information on general bibliographies, was developed. The…

  12. Humanities for medical students? A qualitative study of a medical humanities curriculum in a medical school program

    PubMed Central

    Wachtler, Caroline; Lundin, Susanne; Troein, Margareta

    2006-01-01

    Background Today, there is a trend towards establishing the medical humanities as a component of medical education. However, medical humanities programs that exist within the context of a medical school can be problematic. The aim of this study was to explore problems that can arise with the establishment of a medical humanities curriculum in a medical school program. Methods Our theoretical approach in this study is informed by derridean deconstruction and by post-structuralist analysis. We examined the ideology of the Humanities and Medicine program at Lund University, Sweden, the practical implementation of the program, and how ideology and practice corresponded. Examination of the ideology driving the humanities and medicine program was based on a critical reading of all available written material concerning the Humanities and Medicine project. The practice of the program was examined by means of a participatory observation study of one course, and by in-depth interviews with five students who participated in the course. Data was analysed using a hermeneutic editing approach. Results The ideological language used to describe the program calls it an interdisciplinary learning environment but at the same time shows that the conditions of the program are established by the medical faculty's agenda. In practice, the "humanities" are constructed, defined and used within a medical frame of reference. Medical students have interesting discussions, acquire concepts and enjoy the program. But they come away lacking theoretical structure to understand what they have learned. There is no place for humanities students in the program. Conclusion A challenge facing cross-disciplinary programs is creating an environment where the disciplines have equal standing and contribution. PMID:16519815

  13. Assessment of Technical Skills Competence in the Operating Room: A Systematic and Scoping Review.

    PubMed

    Fahim, Christine; Wagner, Natalie; Nousiainen, Markku T; Sonnadara, Ranil

    2018-05-01

    While academic accreditation bodies continue to promote competency-based medical education (CBME), the feasibility of conducting regular CBME assessments remains challenging. The purpose of this study was to identify evidence pertaining to the practical application of assessments that aim to measure technical competence for surgical trainees in a nonsimulated, operative setting. In August 2016, the authors systematically searched Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews for English-language, peer-reviewed articles published in or after 1996. The title, abstract, and full text of identified articles were screened. Data regarding study characteristics, psychometric and measurement properties, implementation of assessment, competency definitions, and faculty training were extracted. The findings from the systematic review were supplemented by a scoping review to identify key strategies related to faculty uptake and implementation of CBME assessments. A total of 32 studies were included. The majority of studies reported reasonable scores of interrater reliability and internal consistency. Seven articles identified minimum scores required to establish competence. Twenty-five articles mentioned faculty training. Many of the faculty training interventions focused on timely completion of assessments or scale calibration. There are a number of diverse tools used to assess competence for intraoperative technical skills and a lack of consensus regarding the definition of technical competence within and across surgical specialties. Further work is required to identify when and how often trainees should be assessed and to identify strategies to train faculty to ensure timely and accurate assessment.

  14. Darwinian perspectives on the evolution of human languages.

    PubMed

    Pagel, Mark

    2017-02-01

    Human languages evolve by a process of descent with modification in which parent languages give rise to daughter languages over time and in a manner that mimics the evolution of biological species. Descent with modification is just one of many parallels between biological and linguistic evolution that, taken together, offer up a Darwinian perspective on how languages evolve. Combined with statistical methods borrowed from evolutionary biology, this Darwinian perspective has brought new opportunities to the study of the evolution of human languages. These include the statistical inference of phylogenetic trees of languages, the study of how linguistic traits evolve over thousands of years of language change, the reconstruction of ancestral or proto-languages, and using language change to date historical events.

  15. Preference for language in early infancy: the human language bias is not speech specific.

    PubMed

    Krentz, Ursula C; Corina, David P

    2008-01-01

    Fundamental to infants' acquisition of their native language is an inherent interest in the language spoken around them over non-linguistic environmental sounds. The following studies explored whether the bias for linguistic signals in hearing infants is specific to speech, or reflects a general bias for all human language, spoken and signed. Results indicate that 6-month-old infants prefer an unfamiliar, visual-gestural language (American Sign Language) over non-linguistic pantomime, but 10-month-olds do not. These data provide evidence against a speech-specific bias in early infancy and provide insights into those properties of human languages that may underlie this language-general attentional bias.

  16. Faculty Internships in California Community Colleges.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Klein, Charlie; Peralez, Jose

    In response to a request from the Board of Governors, the California Community Colleges' Office of the Chancellor undertook a study to determine the extent and characteristics of faculty internship programs in system colleges. In April 1995, surveys were mailed to human resource directors and chief instructional officers at all 106 community…

  17. Undergraduate Peer Learning and Public Digital Humanities Research

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Draxler, Bridget; Hsieh, Haowei; Dudley, Nicole; Winet, Jon

    2012-01-01

    In conjunction with Iowa City's 2008 designation as a UNESCO City of Literature, an interdisciplinary team of University of Iowa faculty, graduate and undergraduate student researchers formed UCOL--the University of Iowa UNESCO City of Literature Mobile Application Development Team. The project brings together community partners, faculty, students…

  18. Unite and Conquer: A Collaborative Approach to Faculty Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Paradis, Thomas W.; Smalldon, Kathleen L.

    2007-01-01

    Creating opportunities to share student learning and assessment resources with faculty face- to-face can be a daunting challenge. At Northern Arizona University (NAU) in Flagstaff, Arizona, leaders representing six different service units and committees have developed a collaborative approach of "unite and conquer," in which the human,…

  19. Mending the Rift between Full and Part-Time Faculty.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tyree, Larry W.; Grunder, Pat; O'Connell, April

    2000-01-01

    Addresses the need to improve the working conditions of part-time faculty by referring to Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs (1954), which includes physiological, safety and security, love and belongingness, esteem, cognitive, aesthetic, and self-actualizing needs. Calls for "overarching initiatives" that need to be undertaken on behalf…

  20. Teaching Well and Liking It: Motivating Faculty To Teach Effectively.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bess, James L., Ed.

    Chapters in this collection on college faculty motivation and teaching effectiveness include: "The Meaning of Human Motivation" (Charles J. Walker and Cynthia Symons); "Wanting to Be a Good Teacher: What Have We Learned To Date?" (Wilbert J. McKeachie); "Beyond Male Theory: A Feminist Perspective on Teaching…

  1. A Dental School's Experience with the Death of an HIV Positive Faculty Member.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Butters, Janice M.; And Others

    1994-01-01

    This article reviews issues and circumstances surrounding the death of a University of Louisville (Kentucky) dental school faculty member found to be positive for the human immunodeficiency virus. it addresses administrative aspects including public relations, patient relations, epidemiological review, and staff counseling. (MSE)

  2. Courseware Components and Features: Preferences of Faculty in the Human Sciences

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Causin, Gina Fe G.; Robertson, Lona J.; Ryan, Bill

    2008-01-01

    This project gathered information on the important components and features of distance education courseware identified by faculty teaching in the Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance. Respondents indicated that they were most interested in features that helped with course management, allowed them to update and post course materials…

  3. A Quartet of Change Guides.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gates, Alan

    Since spring 1979 numerous changes in Humanities offerings and operations have been discussed, agreed upon, and implemented at Clark College to revitalize enrollments and increase faculty energy levels. The process of change was based upon four principles: (1) the faculty perceived the need to change, wanted to explore the potential benefits of…

  4. 45 CFR 1308.9 - Eligibility criteria: Speech or language impairments.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... HUMAN DEVELOPMENT SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES THE ADMINISTRATION FOR CHILDREN... language impairments. (a) A speech or language impairment means a communication disorder such as stuttering... language disorder may be characterized by difficulty in understanding and producing language, including...

  5. A human mirror neuron system for language: Perspectives from signed languages of the deaf.

    PubMed

    Knapp, Heather Patterson; Corina, David P

    2010-01-01

    Language is proposed to have developed atop the human analog of the macaque mirror neuron system for action perception and production [Arbib M.A. 2005. From monkey-like action recognition to human language: An evolutionary framework for neurolinguistics (with commentaries and author's response). Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28, 105-167; Arbib M.A. (2008). From grasp to language: Embodied concepts and the challenge of abstraction. Journal de Physiologie Paris 102, 4-20]. Signed languages of the deaf are fully-expressive, natural human languages that are perceived visually and produced manually. We suggest that if a unitary mirror neuron system mediates the observation and production of both language and non-linguistic action, three prediction can be made: (1) damage to the human mirror neuron system should non-selectively disrupt both sign language and non-linguistic action processing; (2) within the domain of sign language, a given mirror neuron locus should mediate both perception and production; and (3) the action-based tuning curves of individual mirror neurons should support the highly circumscribed set of motions that form the "vocabulary of action" for signed languages. In this review we evaluate data from the sign language and mirror neuron literatures and find that these predictions are only partially upheld. 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Faculty-Student Caring Interaction in Nursing Education: An Integrative Review

    PubMed Central

    Salehian, Maryam; Heydari, Abbas; Aghebati, Nahid; Karimi Moonaghi, Hossein

    2017-01-01

    Introduction: Faculty- student caring relationship in nursing education has been offered as enhancing students’ learning experiences to care , desire to care for others and self-actu­alization. This review therefore was carried out to analyze faculty-student caring interactions in nursing education. Methods: This concept analysis of caring in the nursing education was conducted based on Broom methodology of integrative review. The literature was consisted of two books from two known theorists, and 47 relevant articles. They retrieved from English data bases including MEDLINE, CINAHL, ERIC, SCOPUS, and SID, with based on the keywords of caring and "nursing education", during the period 2005-2014. Results: Caring in nursing education refers to faculty-student interaction based on ethical and human values. The development of values and moral principles in education, flexibility in educational processes, application of objective patterns in learning, and dynamism in educational processes are identified as caring concept attributes in teaching-learning process. This requires environmental support, constant human relationship, and knowing. Internalization of values, achieving self-esteem, peace, and towards human evolution were the main achievements of the concept of caring in nursing education. Conclusion: The details obtained from the dimensions of "caring" concept in this study could be utilized by nursing education researchers and designers in order to develop content and structure for educational programs. PMID:28971076

  7. Faculty-Student Caring Interaction in Nursing Education: An Integrative Review.

    PubMed

    Salehian, Maryam; Heydari, Abbas; Aghebati, Nahid; Karimi Moonaghi, Hossein

    2017-09-01

    Introduction: Faculty- student caring relationship in nursing education has been offered as enhancing students' learning experiences to care , desire to care for others and self-actu-alization. This review therefore was carried out to analyze faculty-student caring interactions in nursing education. Methods: This concept analysis of caring in the nursing education was conducted based on Broom methodology of integrative review. The literature was consisted of two books from two known theorists, and 47 relevant articles. They retrieved from English data bases including MEDLINE, CINAHL, ERIC, SCOPUS, and SID, with based on the keywords of caring and "nursing education", during the period 2005-2014. Results: Caring in nursing education refers to faculty-student interaction based on ethical and human values. The development of values and moral principles in education, flexibility in educational processes, application of objective patterns in learning, and dynamism in educational processes are identified as caring concept attributes in teaching-learning process. This requires environmental support, constant human relationship, and knowing. Internalization of values, achieving self-esteem, peace, and towards human evolution were the main achievements of the concept of caring in nursing education. Conclusion: The details obtained from the dimensions of "caring" concept in this study could be utilized by nursing education researchers and designers in order to develop content and structure for educational programs.

  8. Human Rights/Human Needs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Canning, Cynthia

    1978-01-01

    The faculty of Holy Names High School developed an interdisciplinary human rights program with school-wide activities focusing on three selected themes: the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in conjunction with Human Rights Week; Food; and Women. This article outlines major program activities. (SJL)

  9. A Model of Research Paper Writing Instructional Materials for Academic Writing Course: "Needs & Documents Analysis and Model Design"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ghufron, M. Ali; Saleh, Mursid; Warsono; Sofwan, Ahmad

    2016-01-01

    This study aimed at designing a model of instructional materials for Academic Writing Course focusing on research paper writing. The model was designed based on the Curriculum at the English Education Study Program, Faculty of Language and Art Education of IKIP PGRI Bojonegoro, East Java, Indonesia. This model was developed in order to improve…

  10. The Professor's Guide to Taming Technology: Leveraging Digital Media, Web 2.0 and More for Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    King, Kathleen P., Ed.; Cox, Thomas D., Ed.

    2010-01-01

    This book is provided as a guide, encouragement and handbook for faculty to introduce digital media in language they can understand and provide strategies and activities they can quickly assimilate into their teaching. The authors are excited that more people will be able to benefit from the powerful help and guidance contained in this book. This…

  11. Reflexive Pedagogy for Reading across the Curriculum: The University of KwaZulu-Natal Faculty of Education Experience

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mgqwashu, Emmanuel Mfanafuthi

    2011-01-01

    This article is a qualitative evaluation of the role of reflexive pedagogy; a pedagogic approach used in a first year, academic literacy compulsory module for all first year Bachelor of Education (B. Ed) students offered by the School of Language, Literacies, Media and Drama Education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The module is called…

  12. Warfighter Effectiveness Research Center Biannual Newsletter. Volume 1, Issue1, December 2014

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-12-01

    environment 2. Facilitate faculty and cadet research 3. Create and sustain collabora- tion via relationship -building with DoD, industry, and...them have even proposed teaching Behav- ioral Sciences courses in German to fluent cadets! The WERC is eager to reciprocate this relationship , and...language and culture-specific knowledge, SSIM focuses on developing unique pedagogical and technological tools for enhancing the fundamental skills

  13. CALL: Using, Learning, Knowing. Proceedings of the 2012 EUROCALL Conference (Gothenburg, Sweden, August 22-25, 2012)

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bradley, Linda, Ed.; Thouësny, Sylvie, Ed.

    2012-01-01

    For the first time, the annual conference of the European Association for Computer-Assisted Language Learning (EUROCALL) took place in Sweden. The conference took place at the Faculty of Education on historic ground on the old fortification walls of Carolus Dux from the 17th century right in the centre of the city. This year's host comprised the…

  14. Inside English: Journal of the English Council of California Two Year Colleges, Volume 16, Numbers 1-4, October 1988-May 1989.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Woodruff, Barbara Bilson, Ed.; Woodruff, Bert, Ed.

    1989-01-01

    With each issue focusing on different themes, volume 16 of "Inside English" looks at writing programs and critical thinking, developmental writing and the plight of part-time faculty, teaching literature and study abroad programs, and English as a Second Language (ESL) and English programs. In addition to regular columns on the English Council of…

  15. Horizons, Not Boundaries, Are the Language of Retirement: Sense of Fulfillment, Fears, and Life Trajectories of Faculty Extendees in the Philippines

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    de Guzman, Allan B.; Llantino, Monica Lou S.; See, Viva Celina L.; Villanueva, Ria Faye P.; Jung, Yoomi

    2008-01-01

    This qualitative study probed into (a) the sense of fulfillment, (b) fears and anxieties, and (c) life trajectories of aged working professors recruited from one comprehensive university in the Philippines. Interestingly, findings of the study reveal that respondents were fulfilled and felt successful through the life outputs of their students;…

  16. "PULS." – a Blog-based Online-Magazine for Students of Medicine of the Goethe University Frankfurt

    PubMed Central

    Wurche, Bettina; Klauer, Gertrud; Nürnberger, Frank

    2013-01-01

    In the context of nationwide protests 2009 also students of the faculty of medicine/dentistry at Goethe-University in Frankfurt demanded more transparency and communication. To satisfy these demands, a web 2.0-tool offered an innovative solution: A blog-based online-magazine for students and other faculty-members. The online-magazine „PULS.“ is realized with the share-ware blog-software (wordpress version 3.1.3) and is conceived and written by an online-journalist. „PULS.“ is available from https://newsmagazin.puls.med.uni-frankfurt.de/wp/. The articles are generated from own investigations and from ideas of different groups of the faculty– deanship, students and lecturers. A user-analysis is conducted with the open-source software Piwik and considers the data security. Additionally, every year an anonymous online-user-survey (Survey Monkey) is conducted. “PULS.” is continuously online since 14.02.2010 and has published 806 articles (state: 27.11.2012) and has about 2400 readers monthly. The content focuses on the needs of Frankfurt medical students. The close cooperation with different groups of the faculty - deanship, students and lecturers - furthermore guarantees themes relevant to the academic faculty. “PULS.” flanks complex projects and decisions with background-information and communicates them understandable. The user-evaluation shows a growing number of readers and a high acceptance for the online-magazine, its themes and its style. The web 2.0-tool “Blog” and the web-specific language comply with media habits of the main target group, the students of the faculty medicine/dentistry. Thus, “PULS.” has proven as a suitable and strategic instrument. It pushes towards a higher transparency, more communication and a stronger identification of the students with their faculty. PMID:23467571

  17. A Human Mirror Neuron System for Language: Perspectives from Signed Languages of the Deaf

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Knapp, Heather Patterson; Corina, David P.

    2010-01-01

    Language is proposed to have developed atop the human analog of the macaque mirror neuron system for action perception and production [Arbib M.A. 2005. From monkey-like action recognition to human language: An evolutionary framework for neurolinguistics (with commentaries and author's response). "Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28", 105-167; Arbib…

  18. J. G. Herder, the Origin of Language, and the Possibility of Transcultural Narratives

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pan, David

    2004-01-01

    Herder's ideas on cultural plurality in language offer an explanation for how narrative might bridge cultural boundaries. In his "Essay on the Origin of Language", Herder focuses on language as the specifically human trait that distinguishes humanity from all other species on the one hand and the creator of human differences and diversity of…

  19. Language and Character

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Barrow, Robin

    2004-01-01

    Recent empirical research into the brain, while reinforcing the view that we are extensively "programmed", does not refute the idea of a distinctive human mind. The human mind is primarily a product of the human capacity for a distinctive kind of language. Human language is thus what gives us our consciousness, reasoning capacity and autonomy. To…

  20. Computational principles of syntax in the regions specialized for language: integrating theoretical linguistics and functional neuroimaging

    PubMed Central

    Ohta, Shinri; Fukui, Naoki; Sakai, Kuniyoshi L.

    2013-01-01

    The nature of computational principles of syntax remains to be elucidated. One promising approach to this problem would be to construct formal and abstract linguistic models that parametrically predict the activation modulations in the regions specialized for linguistic processes. In this article, we review recent advances in theoretical linguistics and functional neuroimaging in the following respects. First, we introduce the two fundamental linguistic operations: Merge (which combines two words or phrases to form a larger structure) and Search (which searches and establishes a syntactic relation of two words or phrases). We also illustrate certain universal properties of human language, and present hypotheses regarding how sentence structures are processed in the brain. Hypothesis I is that the Degree of Merger (DoM), i.e., the maximum depth of merged subtrees within a given domain, is a key computational concept to properly measure the complexity of tree structures. Hypothesis II is that the basic frame of the syntactic structure of a given linguistic expression is determined essentially by functional elements, which trigger Merge and Search. We then present our recent functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment, demonstrating that the DoM is indeed a key syntactic factor that accounts for syntax-selective activations in the left inferior frontal gyrus and supramarginal gyrus. Hypothesis III is that the DoM domain changes dynamically in accordance with iterative Merge applications, the Search distances, and/or task requirements. We confirm that the DoM accounts for activations in various sentence types. Hypothesis III successfully explains activation differences between object- and subject-relative clauses, as well as activations during explicit syntactic judgment tasks. A future research on the computational principles of syntax will further deepen our understanding of uniquely human mental faculties. PMID:24385957

  1. Computational principles of syntax in the regions specialized for language: integrating theoretical linguistics and functional neuroimaging.

    PubMed

    Ohta, Shinri; Fukui, Naoki; Sakai, Kuniyoshi L

    2013-01-01

    The nature of computational principles of syntax remains to be elucidated. One promising approach to this problem would be to construct formal and abstract linguistic models that parametrically predict the activation modulations in the regions specialized for linguistic processes. In this article, we review recent advances in theoretical linguistics and functional neuroimaging in the following respects. First, we introduce the two fundamental linguistic operations: Merge (which combines two words or phrases to form a larger structure) and Search (which searches and establishes a syntactic relation of two words or phrases). We also illustrate certain universal properties of human language, and present hypotheses regarding how sentence structures are processed in the brain. Hypothesis I is that the Degree of Merger (DoM), i.e., the maximum depth of merged subtrees within a given domain, is a key computational concept to properly measure the complexity of tree structures. Hypothesis II is that the basic frame of the syntactic structure of a given linguistic expression is determined essentially by functional elements, which trigger Merge and Search. We then present our recent functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment, demonstrating that the DoM is indeed a key syntactic factor that accounts for syntax-selective activations in the left inferior frontal gyrus and supramarginal gyrus. Hypothesis III is that the DoM domain changes dynamically in accordance with iterative Merge applications, the Search distances, and/or task requirements. We confirm that the DoM accounts for activations in various sentence types. Hypothesis III successfully explains activation differences between object- and subject-relative clauses, as well as activations during explicit syntactic judgment tasks. A future research on the computational principles of syntax will further deepen our understanding of uniquely human mental faculties.

  2. Calculus detection calibration among dental hygiene faculty members utilizing dental endoscopy: a pilot study.

    PubMed

    Partido, Brian B; Jones, Archie A; English, Dana L; Nguyen, Carol A; Jacks, Mary E

    2015-02-01

    Dental and dental hygiene faculty members often do not provide consistent instruction in the clinical environment, especially in tasks requiring clinical judgment. From previous efforts to calibrate faculty members in calculus detection using typodonts, researchers have suggested using human subjects and emerging technology to improve consistency in clinical instruction. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine if a dental endoscopy-assisted training program would improve intra- and interrater reliability of dental hygiene faculty members in calculus detection. Training included an ODU 11/12 explorer, typodonts, and dental endoscopy. A convenience sample of six participants was recruited from the dental hygiene faculty at a California community college, and a two-group randomized experimental design was utilized. Intra- and interrater reliability was measured before and after calibration training. Pretest and posttest Kappa averages of all participants were compared using repeated measures (split-plot) ANOVA to determine the effectiveness of the calibration training on intra- and interrater reliability. The results showed that both kinds of reliability significantly improved for all participants and the training group improved significantly in interrater reliability from pretest to posttest. Calibration training was beneficial to these dental hygiene faculty members, especially those beginning with less than full agreement. This study suggests that calculus detection calibration training utilizing dental endoscopy can effectively improve interrater reliability of dental and dental hygiene clinical educators. Future studies should include human subjects, involve more participants at multiple locations, and determine whether improved rater reliability can be sustained over time.

  3. Overcoming pitfalls: Results from a mandatory peer review process for written examinations.

    PubMed

    Wilby, Kyle John; El Hajj, Maguy S; El-Bashir, Marwa; Mraiche, Fatima

    2018-04-01

    Written assessments are essential components of higher education practices. However, faculty members encounter common pitfalls when designing questions intended to evaluate student-learning outcomes. The objective of this project was to determine the impact of a mandatory examination peer review process on question accuracy, alignment with learning objectives, use of best practices in question design, and language/grammar. A mandatory peer review process was implemented for all midterm (before phase) and final (after phase) examinations. Peer review occurred by two reviewers and followed a pre-defined guidance document. Non-punitive feedback given to faculty members served as the intervention. Frequencies of flagged questions according to guidance categories were compared between phases. A total of 21 midterm and 21 final exam reviews were included in the analysis. A total of 637 questions were reviewed across all midterms and 1003 questions were reviewed across all finals. Few questions were flagged for accuracy and alignment with learning outcomes. The median total proportion of questions flagged for best practices was significantly lower for final exams versus midterm exams (15.8 vs. 6.45%, p = 0.014). The intervention did not influence language and grammar errors (9.68 vs. 10.0% of questions flagged before and after, respectively, p = 0.305). A non-punitive peer review process for written examinations can overcome pitfalls in exam creation and improve best practices in question writing. The peer-review process had a substantial effect at flagging language/grammar errors but error rate did not differ between midterm and final exams. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. An anthropological approach to teaching health sciences students cultural competency in a field school program.

    PubMed

    Hutchins, Frank T; Brown, Lori DiPrete; Poulsen, Keith P

    2014-02-01

    International immersion experiences do not, in themselves, provide students with the opportunity to develop cultural competence. However, using an anthropological lens to educate students allows them to learn how to negotiate cultural differences by removing their own cultural filters and seeing events through the eyes of those who are culturally different. Faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Global Health Institute believed that an embedded experience, in which students engaged with local communities, would encourage them to adopt this Cultural Competency 2.0 position. With this goal in mind, they started the Field School for the Study of Language, Culture, and Community Health in Ecuador in 2003 to teach cultural competency to medical, veterinary, pharmacy, and nursing students. The program was rooted in medical anthropology and embraced the One Health initiative, which is a collaborative effort of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally, and globally to obtain optimal health for people, animals, and the environment. In this article, the authors identify effective practices and challenges for using a biocultural approach to educating students. In a semester-long preparatory class, students study the Spanish language, region-specific topics, and community engagement principles. While in Ecuador for five weeks, students apply their knowledge during community visits that involve homestays and service learning projects, for which they partner with local communities to meet their health needs. This combination of language and anthropological course work and community-based service learning has led to positive outcomes for the local communities as well as professional development for students and faculty.

  5. Integrating personalized medical test contents with XML and XSL-FO.

    PubMed

    Toddenroth, Dennis; Dugas, Martin; Frankewitsch, Thomas

    2011-03-01

    In 2004 the adoption of a modular curriculum at the medical faculty in Muenster led to the introduction of centralized examinations based on multiple-choice questions (MCQs). We report on how organizational challenges of realizing faculty-wide personalized tests were addressed by implementation of a specialized software module to automatically generate test sheets from individual test registrations and MCQ contents. Key steps of the presented method for preparing personalized test sheets are (1) the compilation of relevant item contents and graphical media from a relational database with database queries, (2) the creation of Extensible Markup Language (XML) intermediates, and (3) the transformation into paginated documents. The software module by use of an open source print formatter consistently produced high-quality test sheets, while the blending of vectorized textual contents and pixel graphics resulted in efficient output file sizes. Concomitantly the module permitted an individual randomization of item sequences to prevent illicit collusion. The automatic generation of personalized MCQ test sheets is feasible using freely available open source software libraries, and can be efficiently deployed on a faculty-wide scale.

  6. Second language learning in a family nurse practitioner and nurse midwifery diversity education project.

    PubMed

    Kelley, Frances J; Klopf, Maria Ignacia

    2008-10-01

    To describe the Clinical Communication Program developed to integrate second language learning (L2), multimedia, Web-based technologies, and the Internet in an advanced practice nursing education program. Electronic recording devices as well as audio, video editing, Web design, and programming software were used as tools for developing L2 scenarios for practice in clinical settings. The Clinical Communication Program offers opportunities to support both students and faculty members to develop their linguistic and cultural competence skills to serve better their patients, in general, and their students who speak a language other than English, in particular. The program provided 24 h on-demand access for using audio, video, and text exercises via the Internet. L2 education for healthcare providers includes linguistic (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) experiences as well as cultural competence and practices inside and outside the classroom environment as well as online and offline the Internet realm.

  7. "Eugenics talk" and the language of bioethics.

    PubMed

    Wilkinson, S

    2008-06-01

    In bioethical discussions of preimplantation genetic diagnosis and prenatal screening, accusations of eugenics are commonplace, as are counter-claims that talk of eugenics is misleading and unhelpful. This paper asks whether "eugenics talk", in this context, is legitimate and useful or something to be avoided. It also looks at the extent to which this linguistic question can be answered without first answering relevant substantive moral questions. Its main conclusion is that the best and most non-partisan argument for avoiding eugenics talk is the Autonomy Argument. According to this, eugenics talk per se is not wrong, but there is something wrong with using its emotive power as a means of circumventing people's critical-rational faculties. The Autonomy Argument does not, however, tell against eugenics talk when such language is used to shock people into critical-rational thought. These conclusions do not depend on unique features of eugenics: similar considerations apply to emotive language throughout bioethics.

  8. “Eugenics talk” and the language of bioethics

    PubMed Central

    Wilkinson, S

    2008-01-01

    In bioethical discussions of preimplantation genetic diagnosis and prenatal screening, accusations of eugenics are commonplace, as are counter-claims that talk of eugenics is misleading and unhelpful. This paper asks whether “eugenics talk”, in this context, is legitimate and useful or something to be avoided. It also looks at the extent to which this linguistic question can be answered without first answering relevant substantive moral questions. Its main conclusion is that the best and most non-partisan argument for avoiding eugenics talk is the Autonomy Argument. According to this, eugenics talk per se is not wrong, but there is something wrong with using its emotive power as a means of circumventing people’s critical–rational faculties. The Autonomy Argument does not, however, tell against eugenics talk when such language is used to shock people into critical–rational thought. These conclusions do not depend on unique features of eugenics: similar considerations apply to emotive language throughout bioethics. PMID:18511622

  9. Effectiveness of online simulation training: Measuring faculty knowledge, perceptions, and intention to adopt.

    PubMed

    Kim, Sujeong; Park, Chang; O'Rourke, Jennifer

    2017-04-01

    Best practice standards of simulation recommend standardized simulation training for nursing faculty. Online training may offer an effective and more widely available alternative to in-person training. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior, this study evaluated the effectiveness of an online simulation training program, examining faculty's foundational knowledge of simulation as well as perceptions and intention to adopt. One-group pretest-posttest design. A large school of nursing with a main campus and five regional campuses in the Midwestern United States. Convenience sample of 52 faculty participants. Knowledge of foundational simulation principles was measured by pre/post-training module quizzes. Perceptions and the intention to adopt simulation were measured using the Faculty Attitudes and Intent to Use Related to the Human Patient Simulator questionnaire. There was a significant improvement in faculty knowledge after training and observable improvements in attitudes. Attitudes significantly influenced the intention to adopt simulation (B=2.54, p<0.001). Online simulation training provides an effective alternative for training large numbers of nursing faculty who seek to implement best practice of standards within their institutions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Developing the Master Educator: Cross Disciplinary Teaching Scholars Program for Human and Veterinary Medical Faculty

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Srinivasan, Malathi; Pratt, Daniel D.; Collins, John; Bowe, Constance M.; Stevenson, Frazier T.; Pinney, Stephen J.; Wilkes, Michael S.

    2007-01-01

    Objective: At the University of California, Davis (UCD), the authors sought to develop an institutional network of reflective educational leaders. The authors wanted to enhance faculty understanding of medical education's complexity, and improve educators' effectiveness as regional/national leaders. Methods: The UCD Teaching Scholars Program is a…

  11. Teaching and Leading for Human Flourishing: Creating a Liberal Arts Framework for Teacher Preparation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lederhouse, Jillian N.

    2014-01-01

    To satisfy the ongoing demands of external communities, education faculty at liberal arts colleges often make curricular and instructional compromises within their programs which can adversely affect the developmental goals of liberal education. This article highlights several of the complex tensions faculty members face in offering their…

  12. Experience with and Attitudes toward Computers in Medicine of Students and Clinical Faculty Members at One School.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Knapp, Rebecca G.; And Others

    1987-01-01

    A medical school survey examined student and faculty willingness to use computers and the prevalence of the attitudes that computers in medicine are a potential threat to employment, neither convenient nor responsive to physicians' needs, and potentially debasing to the human role in medical practice. (MSE)

  13. Human Needs and Faculty Motivation.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schneider, Benjamin; Zalesny, Mary D.

    Need-based theories of work motivation are considered with particular reference to university faculty; it is hypothesized that three different types of people are attracted to the academic setting: (1) those who want to teach, (2) those who want to do research, and (3) those who want to do both. According to need theories, certain fundamental…

  14. Empathy, Sympathy, Simulation? Resisting a Holocaust Pedagogy of Identification

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bos, Pascale R.

    2014-01-01

    Most colleges and universities in the United States today offer one or more undergraduate courses on the Holocaust in History, Sociology, Literature, or other Humanities disciplines. Enrollments are strong, and many faculty members find themselves teaching such courses at the request of their chair or dean. However, most faculty will not have been…

  15. Service-Learning in Building Engineering by Use of Interdisciplinary Field Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Leung, Barbara Y. P.

    2016-01-01

    Previous studies have demonstrated that service-learning (SL) can help students not only develop their personal qualities but also enhance their social and civic sense of responsibility. Despite many promotions since the mid-1990s, the development of SL is popular in humanity faculties but not in technical faculties with intellectual orientations…

  16. A Pipeline to the Tenure Track

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roach, Ronald

    2009-01-01

    Despite U.S. higher education facing a wave of retirements by older baby boomer and World War II-era born professors, there remain large pockets in the academic work force, such as life science faculties at research universities and humanities/social science faculties across all of academia, where tenure-track jobs are scarce and the market is…

  17. A Survey of Faculty Mentoring Programs in AACSB Schools of Business

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Raymond, Bruce C.; Kannan, Vijay R.

    2014-01-01

    The human resources management literature offers considerable evidence that mentoring programs can positively influence a variety of measures of both individual and organizational performance. This study examines the use and effectiveness of faculty mentoring programs at business schools in the United States. A survey of 118 schools accredited by…

  18. How Tenure in Higher Education Relates to Faculty Productivity and Retention

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Manjounes, Cindy Kay

    2016-01-01

    Some public university systems are considering abolishing tenure as a cost-saving mechanism, but little is known about how this change may impact organizational outcomes related to faculty retention and research productivity. Using Almendarez' human capital theory, the purpose of this concurrent mixed methods study was to explore how tenure…

  19. Implications to Postsecondary Faculty of Alternative Calculation Methods of Gender-Based Wage Differentials.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hagedorn, Linda Serra

    1998-01-01

    A study explored two distinct methods of calculating a precise measure of gender-based wage differentials among college faculty. The first estimation considered wage differences using a formula based on human capital; the second included compensation for past discriminatory practices. Both measures were used to predict three specific aspects of…

  20. The Dynamic between Knowledge Production and Faculty Evaluation: Perceptions of the Promotion and Tenure Process across Disciplines

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jackson, J. Kasi; Latimer, Melissa; Stoiko, Rachel

    2017-01-01

    This study sought to understand predictors of faculty satisfaction with promotion and tenure processes and reasonableness of expectations in the context of a striving institution. The factors we investigated included discipline (high-consensus [science and math] vs. low-consensus [humanities and social sciences]); demographic variables; and…

  1. Engaging students and faculty: implications of self-determination theory for teachers and leaders in academic medicine

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Background Much of the work of teachers and leaders at academic health centers involves engaging learners and faculty members in shared goals. Strategies to do so, however, are seldom informed by empirically-supported theories of human motivation. Discussion This article summarizes a substantial body of motivational research that yields insights and approaches of importance to academic faculty leaders. After identification of key limitations of traditional rewards-based (i.e., incentives, or 'carrots and sticks’) approaches, key findings are summarized from the science of self-determination theory. These findings demonstrate the importance of fostering autonomous motivation by supporting the fundamental human needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. In turn, these considerations lead to specific recommendations about approaches to engaging autonomous motivation, using examples in academic health centers. Summary Since supporting autonomous motivation maximizes both functioning and well-being (i.e., people are both happier and more productive), the approaches recommended will help academic health centers recruit, retain, and foster the success of learners and faculty members. Such goals are particularly important to address the multiple challenges confronting these institutions. PMID:24215369

  2. Engaging students and faculty: implications of self-determination theory for teachers and leaders in academic medicine.

    PubMed

    Lyness, Jeffrey M; Lurie, Stephen J; Ward, Denham S; Mooney, Christopher J; Lambert, David R

    2013-11-11

    Much of the work of teachers and leaders at academic health centers involves engaging learners and faculty members in shared goals. Strategies to do so, however, are seldom informed by empirically-supported theories of human motivation. This article summarizes a substantial body of motivational research that yields insights and approaches of importance to academic faculty leaders. After identification of key limitations of traditional rewards-based (i.e., incentives, or 'carrots and sticks') approaches, key findings are summarized from the science of self-determination theory. These findings demonstrate the importance of fostering autonomous motivation by supporting the fundamental human needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. In turn, these considerations lead to specific recommendations about approaches to engaging autonomous motivation, using examples in academic health centers. Since supporting autonomous motivation maximizes both functioning and well-being (i.e., people are both happier and more productive), the approaches recommended will help academic health centers recruit, retain, and foster the success of learners and faculty members. Such goals are particularly important to address the multiple challenges confronting these institutions.

  3. Grammatical pattern learning by human infants and cotton-top tamarin monkeys

    PubMed Central

    Saffran, Jenny; Hauser, Marc; Seibel, Rebecca; Kapfhamer, Joshua; Tsao, Fritz; Cushman, Fiery

    2008-01-01

    There is a surprising degree of overlapping structure evident across the languages of the world. One factor leading to cross-linguistic similarities may be constraints on human learning abilities. Linguistic structures that are easier for infants to learn should predominate in human languages. If correct, then (a) human infants should more readily acquire structures that are consistent with the form of natural language, whereas (b) non-human primates’ patterns of learning should be less tightly linked to the structure of human languages. Prior experiments have not directly compared laboratory-based learning of grammatical structures by human infants and non-human primates, especially under comparable testing conditions and with similar materials. Five experiments with 12-month-old human infants and adult cotton-top tamarin monkeys addressed these predictions, employing comparable methods (familiarization-discrimination) and materials. Infants rapidly acquired complex grammatical structures by using statistically predictive patterns, failing to learn structures that lacked such patterns. In contrast, the tamarins only exploited predictive patterns when learning relatively simple grammatical structures. Infant learning abilities may serve both to facilitate natural language acquisition and to impose constraints on the structure of human languages. PMID:18082676

  4. Sign Language and Language Acquisition in Man and Ape. New Dimensions in Comparative Pedolinguistics.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Peng, Fred C. C., Ed.

    A collection of research materials on sign language and primatology is presented here. The essays attempt to show that: sign language is a legitimate language that can be learned not only by humans but by nonhuman primates as well, and nonhuman primates have the capability to acquire a human language using a different mode. The following…

  5. Through the looking glass: how reflective learning influences the development of young faculty members.

    PubMed

    Higgins, Stacy; Bernstein, Lisa; Manning, Kimberly; Schneider, Jason; Kho, Anna; Brownfield, Erica; Branch, William T

    2011-01-01

    Faculty development is needed that will influence clinical teachers to better enable them to transmit humanistic values to their learners and colleagues. We sought to understand the processes whereby reflective learning influenced professional growth in a convenience sample of young faculty members. We analyzed appreciative inquiry narratives written over 4 years using the constant comparative method to identify major underlying themes and develop hypotheses concerning how reflective learning influenced participants in the faculty development program. Six of the participants and the facilitator were participant observers in the qualitative analysis. Group support, validation, and cohesion led to adoption of common values that informed the professional development of the participants over 4 years of the study. Common values influenced the group members as they progressed in their careers. Faculty development programs that focus on humanism and reflective learning can facilitate the growth of young faculty members by influencing their values and attitudes at crucial phases of their careers.

  6. Scientific Language: Wherein Its Mystique?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Randall, Alice Fracker

    In recent years both scientists and laypeople have viewed with dismay the notion that science seems mysteriously different from other areas of human concern. Scientific language is part of the mystique. Yet scientific language is human language before it is science. The mystique that people ascribe to scientific language is of their own making,…

  7. [Genital warts and HPV vaccination].

    PubMed

    Pilka, R; Dvorák, V; Fait, T

    2011-12-01

    To present and overview of incidence of, and cost of care for, genital warts. Review. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Palacky University and Faculty University, Olomouc; Office gynecology and primary care centre, Brno; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Charles university in Prague-First Faculty of Medicine and General Faculty Hospital, Prague. Literature review of incidence of, and cost of care for, genital warts in some european countries, North America and Australia. Genital warts exert a considerable impact on health services, a large proportion of which could be prevented through immunisation using the quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccine.

  8. Human language reveals a universal positivity bias

    PubMed Central

    Dodds, Peter Sheridan; Clark, Eric M.; Desu, Suma; Frank, Morgan R.; Reagan, Andrew J.; Williams, Jake Ryland; Mitchell, Lewis; Harris, Kameron Decker; Kloumann, Isabel M.; Bagrow, James P.; Megerdoomian, Karine; McMahon, Matthew T.; Tivnan, Brian F.; Danforth, Christopher M.

    2015-01-01

    Using human evaluation of 100,000 words spread across 24 corpora in 10 languages diverse in origin and culture, we present evidence of a deep imprint of human sociality in language, observing that (i) the words of natural human language possess a universal positivity bias, (ii) the estimated emotional content of words is consistent between languages under translation, and (iii) this positivity bias is strongly independent of frequency of word use. Alongside these general regularities, we describe interlanguage variations in the emotional spectrum of languages that allow us to rank corpora. We also show how our word evaluations can be used to construct physical-like instruments for both real-time and offline measurement of the emotional content of large-scale texts. PMID:25675475

  9. The Central Valley Dual Language Consortium and the "Stanislaus Associación de Investigación Latina": A Map of Our Journey

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Flores, Juan M.; Duran, Arturo

    2014-01-01

    California's Proposition 227, or the Unz Initiative, had as its main focus the requirement that English learners be taught only in English, based on the belief that these children could learn English in one year. This led to the dismantling of many bilingual programs in K-12 schools across California. A team of faculty from California State…

  10. Persuasive Effects of Linguistic Agency Assignments and Point of View in Narrative Health Messages About Colon Cancer.

    PubMed

    Chen, Meng; McGlone, Matthew S; Bell, Robert A

    2015-08-01

    The authors explored the effects of linguistic agency and point of view on narrative force. Participants (N = 499) were randomly assigned to read one version of an article about colon cancer, defined by a 2 (disease agency: cancer, human) × 2 (temporal agency: death, human) × 2 (point of view: first person, third person) between-subjects design. Disease agency language assigned agency to cancer (e.g., "Cancer developed in me") or to humans (e.g., "I developed cancer"). Temporal agency language described death as approaching humans (e.g., "as death closes in on patients) or as being approached by humans (e.g., "as patients close in on death"). The narrative was presented from the first-person singular or third-person plural viewpoint. Participants then completed a questionnaire measuring threat perceptions, efficacy, transportation, and other study variables. Language assigning agency to humans rather than to cancer elevated susceptibility beliefs. Death-approach language led to greater fear than human-approach language without impacting efficacy perceptions. Human-approach language was rated more persuasive than death-approach language, but only in first-person point-of-view narratives. Transportation and identification were positively associated with ratings of threat severity and susceptibility, fear, efficacy, behavioral intentions, and message persuasiveness. Implications for message design are discussed.

  11. The Glass Houses of Attending Surgeons: An Assessment of Unprofessional Behavior on Facebook Among Practicing Surgeons.

    PubMed

    Langenfeld, Sean J; Sudbeck, Craig; Luers, Thomas; Adamson, Peter; Cook, Gates; Schenarts, Paul J

    2015-01-01

    Our recent publication demonstrated that unprofessional behavior on Facebook is common among surgical residents. In the formulation of standards and curricula to address this issue, it is important that surgical faculty lead by example. Our current study refocuses on the Facebook profiles of faculty surgeons involved in the education of general surgery residents. The American College of Surgeons (ACS) web site was used to identify general surgery residencies located in the Midwest. Departmental web sites were then searched to identify teaching faculty for the general surgery residency. Facebook was then searched to determine which faculty had profiles available for viewing by the general public. Profiles were then placed in 1 of the 3 following categories: professional, potentially unprofessional, or clearly unprofessional. A chi-square test was used to determine significance. In all, 57 residency programs were identified on the ACS web site, 100% of which provided an institutional web site listing the surgical faculty. A total of 758 general surgery faculty were identified (133 women and 625 men), of which 195 (25.7%) had identifiable Facebook accounts. In all, 165 faculty (84.6%) had no unprofessional content, 20 (10.3%) had potentially unprofessional content, and 10 (5.1%) had clearly unprofessional content. Inter-rater reliability was good (88.9% agreement, κ = 0.784). Clearly unprofessional behavior was found only in male surgeons. For male surgeons, clearly unprofessional behavior was more common among those in practice for less than 5 years (p = 0.031). Alcohol and politics were the most commonly found variables in the potentially unprofessional group. Inappropriate language and sexually suggestive material were the most commonly found variables in the clearly unprofessional group. Unprofessional behavior on Facebook is less common among surgical faculty compared with surgical residents. However, the rates remain unacceptably high, especially among men and those in practice for less than 5 years. Education on the dangers of social media should not be limited to residents but should instead be extended to attending surgeons as well. Copyright © 2015 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. The Humanities Approach to the Modern Secondary School Curriculum.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Miller, Bernard S.

    The humanities curriculum described in this book is designed as a multidisciplinary, integrated approach to learning. Chapter 1 discusses a definition of the humanities; the segmented curriculum; student expectations; teacher training and the importance of the faculty; the humanities and the sciences; organizing a humanities program; advantages of…

  13. Genes and Vocal Learning

    PubMed Central

    White, Stephanie A.

    2009-01-01

    Could a mutation in a single gene be the evolutionary lynchpin supporting the development of human language? A rare mutation in the molecule known as FOXP2 discovered in a human family seemed to suggest so, and its sequence phylogeny reinforced a Chomskian view that language emerged wholesale in humans. Spurred by this discovery, research in primates, rodents and birds suggests that FoxP2 and other language-related genes are interactors in the neuromolecular networks that underlie subsystems of language, such symbolic understanding, vocal learning and theory of mind. The whole picture will only come together through comparative and integrative study into how the human language singularity evolved. PMID:19913899

  14. Evolution, brain, and the nature of language.

    PubMed

    Berwick, Robert C; Friederici, Angela D; Chomsky, Noam; Bolhuis, Johan J

    2013-02-01

    Language serves as a cornerstone for human cognition, yet much about its evolution remains puzzling. Recent research on this question parallels Darwin's attempt to explain both the unity of all species and their diversity. What has emerged from this research is that the unified nature of human language arises from a shared, species-specific computational ability. This ability has identifiable correlates in the brain and has remained fixed since the origin of language approximately 100 thousand years ago. Although songbirds share with humans a vocal imitation learning ability, with a similar underlying neural organization, language is uniquely human. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Music and Early Language Acquisition

    PubMed Central

    Brandt, Anthony; Gebrian, Molly; Slevc, L. Robert

    2012-01-01

    Language is typically viewed as fundamental to human intelligence. Music, while recognized as a human universal, is often treated as an ancillary ability – one dependent on or derivative of language. In contrast, we argue that it is more productive from a developmental perspective to describe spoken language as a special type of music. A review of existing studies presents a compelling case that musical hearing and ability is essential to language acquisition. In addition, we challenge the prevailing view that music cognition matures more slowly than language and is more difficult; instead, we argue that music learning matches the speed and effort of language acquisition. We conclude that music merits a central place in our understanding of human development. PMID:22973254

  16. Music and early language acquisition.

    PubMed

    Brandt, Anthony; Gebrian, Molly; Slevc, L Robert

    2012-01-01

    Language is typically viewed as fundamental to human intelligence. Music, while recognized as a human universal, is often treated as an ancillary ability - one dependent on or derivative of language. In contrast, we argue that it is more productive from a developmental perspective to describe spoken language as a special type of music. A review of existing studies presents a compelling case that musical hearing and ability is essential to language acquisition. In addition, we challenge the prevailing view that music cognition matures more slowly than language and is more difficult; instead, we argue that music learning matches the speed and effort of language acquisition. We conclude that music merits a central place in our understanding of human development.

  17. Primate vocal communication: a useful tool for understanding human speech and language evolution?

    PubMed

    Fedurek, Pawel; Slocombe, Katie E

    2011-04-01

    Language is a uniquely human trait, and questions of how and why it evolved have been intriguing scientists for years. Nonhuman primates (primates) are our closest living relatives, and their behavior can be used to estimate the capacities of our extinct ancestors. As humans and many primate species rely on vocalizations as their primary mode of communication, the vocal behavior of primates has been an obvious target for studies investigating the evolutionary roots of human speech and language. By studying the similarities and differences between human and primate vocalizations, comparative research has the potential to clarify the evolutionary processes that shaped human speech and language. This review examines some of the seminal and recent studies that contribute to our knowledge regarding the link between primate calls and human language and speech. We focus on three main aspects of primate vocal behavior: functional reference, call combinations, and vocal learning. Studies in these areas indicate that despite important differences, primate vocal communication exhibits some key features characterizing human language. They also indicate, however, that some critical aspects of speech, such as vocal plasticity, are not shared with our primate cousins. We conclude that comparative research on primate vocal behavior is a very promising tool for deepening our understanding of the evolution of human speech and language, but much is still to be done as many aspects of monkey and ape vocalizations remain largely unexplored.

  18. Caregiver communication to the child as moderator and mediator of genes for language.

    PubMed

    Onnis, Luca

    2017-05-15

    Human language appears to be unique among natural communication systems, and such uniqueness impinges on both nature and nurture. Human babies are endowed with cognitive abilities that predispose them to learn language, and this process cannot operate in an impoverished environment. To be effectively complete the acquisition of human language in human children requires highly socialised forms of learning, scaffolded over years of prolonged and intense caretaker-child interactions. How genes and environment operate in shaping language is unknown. These two components have traditionally been considered as independent, and often pitted against each other in terms of the nature versus nurture debate. This perspective article considers how innate abilities and experience might instead work together. In particular, it envisages potential scenarios for research, in which early caregiver verbal and non-verbal attachment practices may mediate or moderate the expression of human genetic systems for language. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. Addressing disparities in academic medicine: what of the minority tax?

    PubMed

    Rodríguez, José E; Campbell, Kendall M; Pololi, Linda H

    2015-02-01

    The proportion of black, Latino, and Native American faculty in U.S. academic medical centers has remained almost unchanged over the last 20 years. Some authors credit the "minority tax"-the burden of extra responsibilities placed on minority faculty in the name of diversity. This tax is in reality very complex, and a major source of inequity in academic medicine. The "minority tax" is better described as an Underrepresented Minority in Medicine (URMM) faculty responsibility disparity. This disparity is evident in many areas: diversity efforts, racism, isolation, mentorship, clinical responsibilities, and promotion. The authors examine the components of the URMM responsibility disparity and use information from the medical literature and from human resources to suggest practical steps that can be taken by academic leaders and policymakers to move toward establishing faculty equity and thus increase the numbers of black, Latino, and Native American faculty in academic medicine.

  20. Responsible Conduct of Research in Communication Sciences and Disorders: Faculty and Student Perceptions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Minifie, Fred D.; Robey, Randall R.; Horner, Jennifer; Ingham, Janis C.; Lansing, Charissa; McCartney, James H.; Alldredge, Elham-Eid; Slater, Sarah C.; Moss, Sharon E.

    2011-01-01

    Purpose: Two Web-based surveys (Surveys I and II) were used to assess perceptions of faculty and students in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) regarding the responsible conduct of research (RCR). Method: Survey questions addressed 9 RCR domains thought important to the responsible conduct of research: (a) human subjects protections; (b)…

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